Light Fragrance
by gsseo
Summary: A full scholarship student, Yuubi Shitoyaka, to her surprise, got admitted into one of the most prestigious high schools for her artistic abilities. She accidentally stumbles upon the host club and due to her boyish appearance, is mistaken for boy and her life takes a 180 from there, who will she end with, help choose? Romantic comedy. All original main characters included OC.
1. Chapter 1

**Note: This story is purely fanfiction. I do not own Ouran High School Host Club, its story or its characters. **

**The only thing I own is the storyline and Yuubi. Enjoy!**

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She threw her bag over her shoulder and entered through the gates of her new high school, Ouran high, a private academy for the children of some of the richest people in the world. Autumn leaves lightly drifted by and gently brushed against her as she walked under the hundreds of trees across campus, making her way to class.

Having been unable to afford the expensive school uniform, she wore a men's plain white tee tucked under a pair of black denim jeans rolled up to show her ankles, dark brown oxford shoes, and a somewhat oversized black wind breaker. Her eyes were medium in size and chocolate brown, and her hair was cut short in the style of a pixie cut, by personal taste. She was lean and often called flat. Her clothes hung over her body loosely. She didn't look too approachable and had a history for always being a suspect even when she was usually innocent.

Here she was at Ouran high school, one of the most prestigious high schools in the world, a special student on a full scholarship for her unique artistic abilities. She smiled anticipating the memories that were about to come; all she wanted was to make art; and Ouran was willing to invest in her. After all the nagging she received from her family and friends about the dangers of pursuing art, she finally had a chance to prove herself.

She reached her class and sat the table in the back, noticing some girl students looking at her repetitively. "What's your name?" As soon as she knew it, the teacher was standing over her desk.

"Yuubi-san," she cleared her throat.

"Ah! You're the scholarship student, am I right," he playfully asked.

"Umm yes," she smiled.

"Well, I look forward to seeing your work"

"Thank you! I'll do my best"

"Hehe, you better!" He gave her a light smack on the head with a rolled up booklet and made his way to the front. Since it was the first day, her classes went by extremely quick, leaving her the energy and excitement to explore the campus. The school seemed like a large beautiful mansion… There were many moments where she would just pause and stare at the delicate architecture in awe. Running up the stairs was a hassle though, but she wanted to see everything. She soon found herself curiously opening two gigantic doors on the upper level of the school. _Maybe somewhere where I can just paint and relax, looking out the window, _she thought.

She grabbed the handles and opened the doors. Suddenly, a wave of rose pedals blew towards her, blocking her vision to reveal a group of 7 young men lounging on posing with a couch.

"Welcome to the Ouran high school host club," the blonde haired guy sitting in the middle of the couch. "And you are?... Huh? It's a boy. Nonetheless, you're at the host club looking for someone to entertain you. So what's your type? The calm and cool, Mori. The lovely little boy Lolita, Honey. The mischievous twins, Hikaru and Kaoru. The mysterious Kyoya. The down to earth and natural, Haruhi. Or maybe even -" He pulled out a rose from his inner jacket pocket and walked up to her, brushing the rose against her face. "Me… Tamaki Suoh! The princely gentleman type."

"What the–" She burst out laughing hysterically, backing away from the blonde host who had gotten uncomfortably close. "What are you guys anyway? Why is there a host club?" She paused and looked at the group for a second and said, "And… why is there a girl dressed up as a –". Before she knew it, her face was covered by multiple different hands muffling her speech.

"Don't say it out loud," the twins whispered. "How did you even know?"

"Get off me please; I don't like all you guys touching me," she claimed pushing them off. "…And what do you mean how could I tell? It's obvious." Uncomfortable with all the body heat, she quickly scurried away from them, running backwards – until she tripped over a column. She looked back, realizing a vase had flew off the stand. _Oh SHIT, _she thought, diving her whole body for the vase.

And the second it hit the floor, it shattered. She stood there, in complete horror. The host club members also stood there with their jaws practically to the floor. "AHHHH," shouted the female member, who seemed the most horrified out of all the members of the host club. "THAT'S 80 MILLION YEN!"


	2. Chapter 2

"WHAT?!" Yuubi froze; she didn't know how to approach the problem, 80 million yen was far beyond what she could afford. "I… I… I… will have to find a way to pay you back." _What did I get myself into? How am I ever going to pay this back?!_

Suddenly, the members roared in laughter, except the girl. "How could we trust you? You can't even afford a school uniform. Hahahah. Are you that commoner that got accepted into our school this year? Yuubi Shitoyaka. The art major?"

"What do you mean commoner? I mean yeah I'm not from a wealthy family, but money doesn't define a person. Besides… no nevermind. How do you kids know my name anyway," she asked brushing herself off, a little irritated at their humor.

"It's not every day a commoner gets accepted into the school," Kyoya said, gently raising his glasses with his middle finger. She chuckled in response to his pretentious comment.

"Well commoner! If you can't afford to pay off this vase, then we have to do as the ROMANS DO!" The leader pointed at her with seriousness.

"What does that even mean..." she asked.

"From today, you will be a host club member!"

Haruhi's eyes widened. "You're in for a long ride," she warned Yuubi.

"What?! Why a host club member?!"

"That is the fastest way you will pay off your debt and plus, we can watch you working it off. It only makes sense. Plus, you aren't bad looking; you can be… the REBEL ARTIST TYPE"

"HAHAHAHA WHAT? ARE YOU SERIOUS," Yuubi laughed.

"…Or we can turn you into the police… My father owns the secret police force within Japan. If we turned you in, you would have to escape the country," Kyoya smiled.

"Wow… you really enjoy blackmailing, don't you," she asked nervously laughing and cringing at the idea. "Fine, I guess I have to pay off my debt… But you guys… IM A GIRL"

The members, once again, began howling in laughter, which she gave them a sharp glare in response. "You… are NOT a girl," they breathed in between their laughs. "HAHAHAAHAHAHHAHAHAH Oh my god. The things people say to get out of labor these days."

"WHAT?! FINE ARTIST REBEL TYPE. WHATEVER. I'M A BOY. WHATEVER," she shouted. "I'LL BE A HOST MEMBER"

"Nice decision," Kyoya's voice was suddenly right behind her ear, making her cringe awkwardly.

"Jeez…" she sighed. _What… the hell… did I just get myself into? A host club in a private academy? Is this a joke?_

"Kaoru! Hikaru!" Tamaki snapped his fingers and point directly at her. "Get her a uniform. Please"

"No! The uniform is 100,000 yen," she exclaimed. "I'm trying to pay you guys back, not fall further into debt."

"Well… you have to attract the females…"

"Hahaha! It's okay, I have clothes… you do know that right? Don't you guys believe in me?"

They stared at her. "Alright..." Tamaki lightly smiled as Haruhi gently nodded in agreement. "We want you to get 100 requests by the end of this week and you can work for us."

"Umm sure… Alright, see you guys tomorrow," she tried to exit through the door.

"STOP! Where are you going," the twins grabbed her immediately. "You _have _to stay here until we close. You work here now. Jeez, Don't you commoners have responsibilities?"

She laughed. "Since when did lounging around and socializing with people that adore you become a responsibility? Well… then, I see. But, I'm still going outside for a little. See you guys soon."

"You promise?" The little boy Lolita, Honey ran over to her, sticking out his pinky.

"Yeah. I pinky promise!" She smiled, wrapping her pinky around his little finger.

After running down the stairs and various hallways, she finally made it outside._ Jeez, all this running just for a smoke break?_ She asked herself, sliding a cigarette in her mouth. She carefully lit the cigarette, inhaled and sighed. _What a stressful and unexpected first day… of course, I __would__ end up in trouble somehow. _She continued smoking, and suddenly, she began to notice the girl students talking around her.

"Who is that? Is that the transfer art student? I heard he's pretty cute. He's going to be a host now!"

"Oh really?! He looks so cool and manly… How romantic would it be if he painted me."

"He's such a rebel. Look, he doesn't even wear a uniform!"

She sighed heavily, cringing at the amount of girls checking her out. _Do I really look this masculine? Or are they all just stupid? _She never had such a problem in her previous schools. She couldn't understand why it was happening here; nonetheless, it seemed she was in the perfect position to play a boy to pay off her debt.

"Oh."

She heard a low voice coming from behind. "Mori senpai…"

"Are you okay," he asked with a straight face.

"Haha me? Yeah, why?" He answered by looking at her hand lightly holding the cigarette. "…Ohhhh, this? Yeah, I mean it's a habit. I guess. Hahaha, it's kind of pathetic I know."

He nodded and took a seat next to where she was standing. "I hope you're not too upset about joining the host club. It was so sudden; I know."

"Huh?" She stared at him in shock. _They have empathy? What?! LOL. _"No I'm absolutely fine! It was my own fault anyways." She laughed, scratching the back of her head. "I'm sure you guys are all fun people to be around… and who knows, maybe it won't even feel like I'm at work."

He looked over at her, his lips forming into a slight smile, promptly got up from his seat, placed his hand on her hand, and walked away.

"Haha see you soon!" She shouted at his disappearing silhouette.


	3. Chapter 3

After her little escape, she strolled her way back into the host club room, where she was immediately greeted by Honey who swung his arm around her and pulled her to his table. "Nee Nee! Yuubi-chaaan! Let's celebrate with cake!"

"Huh?! Honey Senpai?!" She was taken to the table at tremendous force, feeling a bit uneasy at the amount of strength he had. "What do we have to celebrate?"

"Umm… hmm… uhhh… you know… you know," he peered at her with the sweetest face of confusion. "Umm! Caaaayy-kee…." He was practically drooling at the cake by now. "Umm… OH! We can celebrate Yuubi-san's entrance to the host club!"

"Ah? I'm being forced though…"

"Well… Well you know… I think, sometimes, life has a way of forcing you into the places where you belong," he said smiling widely at her. "So come on! Let's eat cake!" His witty and genuine nature of his response left her momentarily speechless. "YUUBI-CHAAAAANNN! Are you gonna eat cake or not," he asked impatiently, puffing his cheeks.

"Oh yeah," she smiled, taking a seat at his table. "Is it really okay for me to have some?"

"YEAH OF COURSE! Me and Usa chan always welcome a guest to have tea and cake with us, especially a fellow host club member!"

Taking a bite of the fluffy white cake, her eyes widened. "WHAT. NO WAY. It's SO delicious!" Honey senpai giggled and nodded in complete agreement, stuffing his cheeks with the sugary fluffy goodness as well. Within seconds, there were no remains of her cake except the plate and the fork.

"Wow… he ate that cake faster than Honey…" Kyoya said to Tamaki as they watched from afar.

"How is that possible?! … Well he's definitely not a girl, since he can eat that much" Tamaki stared at her in shock, peering over the back of the couch.

"Looks like we picked up a strange one," Kyoya chuckled. "Maybe this will get interesting…"

"Mmmmhm!" Tamaki rose up from his seat and approached Yuubi. "Now, rookie! Time to practice with the host club customers. We need to get your requests soon so show us what you got!" He grabbed her by the shoulder and promptly planted her right into a table of young female students.

"What?! Tamaki senpai! isn't this so sudden?!" It was too late; she had already become the focal point of the 4 person table.

"What's your name," one of the girls asked shyly.

"Umm…I'm Yuubi, but you can call me whatever you'd like," she laughed nervously. _I just need to get 100 requests, so that I can work for the host club and repay that effin debt. Come on, you're a girl too; you know what they want. You can do this. _ "What are your names?"

"Eliza-san"

"Kuran-san"

"Amaya-san"

"Ah, so Eliza-san, Kuran-san, and Amaya-san," she repeated, pointing at them as she called each their names. She leaned back on her chair and laughed. "Man, I'm so bad with names, but I'll definitely be sure that I remember all of yours!" The three began to blush red. "How was everyone's day?"

"Umm… mine was nothing special really… Tell us about yours," Eliza said.

"Don't be shy," she smiled. "I can tell that you guys all have some interesting stories to tell. I won't judge; you can tell me anything. Plus, I want to get to know you guys better."

They blushed even redder. _He's so relaxed and careless. He's humble and doesn't show the slightest bit of arrogance, and he actually about us as people, _they thought.

Yuubi cocked her head at them in confusion. "Haha. Are you guys going to talk?…."

"Oh… umm… today I – no, it's so embarrassing – I… was running to class late and I fell down the stairs." She hid her face in attempt to look cute and hopeless.

"Hahahahahahaha! What? Are you okay," Yuubi asked bursting out laughing. Kuran looked up at her in surprise; she didn't expect her to laugh her story. The other host members wouldn't have. "Lemme check your knee."

"Huh?" Kuran blushed as the other two clasped each other's hands as the anticipation and heat of the event was killing them.

Yuubi leaned over and examined the knee. "Ehh, it's not too bad… but this should do it," she claimed, lightly placing a bandage on her injury. "Be more careful next time – but you know it's always fun to talk about situations like these and laugh it off with your friends!" The girls were, now, fainted. _Wow, really?! Hahhahaha. This is sad; I play a better guy than I am a girl. _

The host club members had been examining the communication between Yuubi and the girls, and their jaws had dropped, seeing that the guests had fainted. "What… are you…" The Hitachiin twins asked in perfect unison, both rapidly pointing their index fingers at her.

She stood up from the table and brushed herself off. "Just a natural," she joked, flashing the group a playful grin.

"That was WONDERFUL Yuubi-san!" Tamaki wrapped his arms around her, flinging his whole body over her and continued to praise her. "That was SOO good! As your leader and mentor, I'm VERYY proud of you!"

"Yeah, good job! It's pretty hard to get the requests through since you are a new member," Haruhi mentioned.

"Thanks guys… I'm not even close to a hundred requests though," she sighed. "And Tamaki, Please. Get off me. This constant touching is not okay."


	4. Chapter 4

**Please feel free to leave comments/reviews! It honestly makes my day to read them! Thank you to everyone who's followed/favorite/reviewed. It really means a lot, so thank you and I hope you guys enjoy the series!**

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After her classes for the day were over and after working on her art piece for two hours, she made her way to the host club, walking past hallways on hallways, arches and arches, and stairs on stairs. Finally, she reached the iconic double doors of Music Room 3. Green and yellow leaves blew straight into her face, temporarily blinding her to reveal, a tropical paradise and the members dressed in tropical attire.

"What…. What is this? You guys are crazy," she started laughing hysterically, in which the host club members responded by blankly staring at her with a bit of sweat dripping down the back of their heads.

"SO ANYWAY… " Tamaki cleared his throat. "The host club, today, has now transformed itself to a TROPICAL PARADISE so that its CUSTOMERS will be HAPPY to ESCAPE the COLD fall weather." The Hitachiin twins nodded behind their leader in agreement.

"Oh? I kind of like the fall weather, don't you" she asked looking out the window. "I always found it kind of interesting how the leaves fell before winter. Why do they always leave the tree by itself during the coldest climate of the year? You know… fall has that kind of taste of melancholy."

"Yeah yeah. How about… just get to your table," Kaoru walked in behind her and pushed her body to her table, mimicking a bulldozer pushing dirt out of the way.

"Huh?" She reached her table where Eliza, Kuran and Amaya were sitting. "Wow, Eliza-san, Kuran-san, Amaya-san," she flashed them a dorky smile. "You guys requested me again?"

"Of course…" Amaya shyly smiled. "We feel the most comfortable around you."

"Haha! Thanks guys" They continued to chat about their day and make fun of each other while talking.

"Hey Yuubi-san, one question," Eliza said.

"Hmm?"

"How come you aren't dressed in a tropical outfit?"

"Hehe, I arrived late," she stuck out her tongue playfully.

"Well… we do have an outfit for you ready…" Kyoya's voice was suddenly behind her again.

"Kyoya…. How do you always manage to get behind me like that…" she cringed in uncomfort. "But, I'll pass on the outfit, thanks."

"We kind of wanted to see you wear something for the occasion," the girls shyly pouted.

"Yes cosplay is extremely popular with the ladies," Kyoya informed with a slight smile, realizing her lack of enthusiasm to play dress up.

"Argh fine. Show me the outfit," she glared at Kyoya, and then faced the girls. "Only because you guys are my friends."

"Friends?!" They blushed heavily; their heads fuming with uncontrollable heat.

"The outfit is the one matching Tamaki's," he responded as she looked over at Tamaki's very heavy looking intricate outfit.

"No," she laughed. "I can't wear that… but I'll find something in the closet." She ran into the host club's closet. After a few minutes, she came out with a loose Hawaiian print short sleeve button up, loosely tucked in tan trouser shorts, and Sperry's. "Do I look tropical yet," she laughed in embarrassment.

"YEAH!" The girls raved in response; their eyes almost seemed to form into hearts. "YOU LOOK SO COOOL."

"What?!... " _They actually like it? This is a crazy school… _she thought to herself, yet gently smiled at the entertainment of it all. She took a moment to look around at the other members of the room. Haruhi, being her usual 'I don't like cosplay' self, was wearing her school uniform but clearly, entertaining her guests with her natural charm and genuine conversations. Tamaki, revealing all his arrogance and the rules he learned to be a gentleman, was seducing many of the guests by touching them with roses and such. The twins entertained their guests through a mischievous and deceiving scenario of twin-cest or twin coupling, while Honey and Mori was a couple between the cute innocent little boy and his cool and calm protector. _Some kind of fantasies the girls at this school have… _she slightly chuckled to herself in response. Kyoya, catching her somewhat feminine chuckle, began to raise his glasses, making the lights flash diagonally across from it hiding his eyes. After the club festivities were over, Kyoya confronted her.

"ID," he claimed, reaching his hand out.

"Wait… what? Am I in trouble," she asked nervously, pulling out her wallet from her book bag.

"No, not at all," he slightly laughed. "Just hand it over to me."

"Hand it over to me, please!" She corrected.

"Ugh. I'm sorry… Hand it over to me please," he laughed.

"Haha okay! There you go," she slapped her ID into his hand. His eyes widened a little and he began to chuckle. "What the – …. That's so creepy… Why are you chuckling Kyoya?"

"So you really are a girl."

"That's what I've been saying, yeah," she crossed her arms, taking a bit of offense in his comment.

"Wow… well I won't tell the others. I want to figure out if they find out for themselves. This _is_ going to be fun." He handed back her ID and walked away, chuckling to himself._ What the… what a character…_ she thought to herself uneasily looking at his back, moving further and further away from her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hi guys! I just wanted to share a song or two because I felt like these two songs could be my character's theme songs: New Navy – Zimbabwe (Flune Remix), What So Not - High You Are (Branchez Remix). Just because of the vibe that they give and since I've been listening to them non-stop while writing! Thank you so much to everyone once again and enjoy the next chapter!**

* * *

The two orange haired identical twins made their way through campus; their expressions were indifferent to their surroundings, and constant yawns filled their mouths between conversations barely there.

"Oh? Hikaru look!" Kaoru lit up, somewhat awakening from his drowsiness.

"Heh… it's the new toy" Hikaru smiled mischievously as he followed the direction of Kaoru's gaze. "Let's go play…"

They crawled up behind her, who was in her own world; dressed in black attire, set up with an easel and stool, painting the autumn trees, listening to music, and smoking a cig. In unison, the twins approached her head from opposite sides, removed her headphones, and screamed – the loudest they possibly could – directly into her ears.

"AHHH!" She sprang up from her seat and flew backwards, taking the stool with her, her paintbrush brushing violently against the canvas as she fell. The twins looked at the canvas in horror. _Oh shit, they _thought. _He's really going to kill us…_

"Sheesh! Way to make me go deaf first thing in the morning," she said, getting up and brushing herself off and lighting out her cigarette. "What do you guys want?" They were speechless; her painting had a thick red stroke – no, it looked more like a seizure – over her beautifully painted vivid orange and yellow leaved trees. She noticed. "…." She walked up to the piece and touched it gently. All Hikaru and Kaoru could see of her by then was her back facing the ruined painting. They shivered in fear, embracing each other and clasping their hands. _We've really done it this time… _they thought, shaking to the fear of her reaction.

Waiting for her response was a nightmare. Hikaru and Kaoru were practically biting their hands by now, sweating what seemed like buckets of water in their freshly ironed school uniforms. After a moment, she finally turned around to face them, an act that made them run a few steps away from her with their faces pale from the lack of circulation from the fear.

"Aw… you guys," she began. "Look what you guys did… it's all ruined now…"

"We're… we…. We… didn't know… didn't mean it to happen… we're so sorry…" Kaoru bowed his head.

"Yeah" Hikaru nodded in agreement, both of them still fearful of the rage that they expected from her.

She stared at them for a moment then laughed, "Haha Nah! it's okay!"

Their eyes widened. "Wait… what….. WAIT WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING?!" HIkaru growled. "AREN'T YOU MAD AT ALL?!"

"Huh? Yeah! Why are you laughing?!"

"Because you didn't mean it… so whatever! … Besides… Now that I look at it again… It might even look better this way," she smiled at the painting, tilting her head a little. "So thanks! For that happy accident!" She faced them with a goofy grin, telling them to not worry anymore, a grin in which the twins replied in a blank expression of utter confusion.

"Huh? Man… you sure are a weird kid," Hikaru finally said.

"Mhm!" Kaoru nodded, smiling at Yuubi. "But still… we're really sorry about what happened… Tell us if you need anything…"

"Haha! Yeah yeah! Get to class" she responded, showing them her tongue.

"Haha fine! We'll see you after!" They ran off a little confused and very content. _He isn't a bad guy after all._ They smiled at each other in agreement.

* * *

The host club wasn't too particularly busy that afternoon, but Tamaki's regular, Kana-san, spent a good hour flirting with him and trying to enjoy his usual flirtatious nature; however, today, he (along with the other host club members) was more occupied on the matter of the host club rookie, Yuubi. He seemed to zone out Kana's words and try to listen to Yuubi's conversations with her customers. After eavesdropping, he would continue on to tell Kana and the other members how surprisingly stunning the new rookie is.

"He's like a natural! It's crazy! He knows exactly what the girls want! I don't understand how!"

The other members nodded in agreement, showing Tamaki their thumbs. "Good job for making him the artist rebel type boss," chanted the twins.

Kana finally felt fed up with it… "You're paying an awful lot of attention to him, Tamaki," she jealously claimed, placing her coffee on the table top before continuing. "Forgetting how to treat your loyal customers…"

"What? Of course not. Of course not," he nonchalantly batted, waving his hand at her. Her eyes sharpened. She got up to leave.

"Enjoy your other guests," she said flatly. "I'm going to test the rookie." She walked over to Yuubi's table and tapped her on the shoulder. "Do you have time? Sorry ladies, I want an individual meeting."


	6. Chapter 6

"AWWH Yuubi-kun! I guess we'll see you later," the girls at her table whined as they took their leave.

"Aw! Okay bye guys! I'll see ya later!" Yuubi turned to face Kana. "So what do you want to talk about," she asked gently smiling at her.

"Why are you so enthusiastic?" Kana stared down into the cup of coffee momentarily then directed her eye contact to Yuubi. "You just enjoy all the attention from Tamaki and the other hosts, don't you?"

"Attention from the hosts? What attention," Yuubi curiously asked, tilting her head to the side. "To be honest, I actually dislike attention… from girls, from guys, from anyone," she laughed, making Kana cringe.

"Well don't worry… it'll all go away soon." Her tone had changed. _Oh. She has something against me, _Yuubi thought. "You should leave Ouran soon. You should just randomly disappear. Maybe, I can talk to the dean about accepting talentless commoners into this prestigious school. You ugly piece of garbage. Why did you even come to this school?!" She was standing up from her seat now, pushing Yuubi's head with her fist. "I don't see anything close to special about you. I just see a piece of dirt."

"Whoa there... That was uncalled for," Yuubi teased, in slight shock of the sudden anger that was realized on her.

In anger, Kana grabbed the hot kettle from the table and poured it on Yuubi's head. The rest of the host members stood up and ran over to investigate the situation; however, still keeping their distance.

"Ow... That burns. but I'm sure your head burns, much worse, from all that unnecessary jealousy you feel right now," Yuubi said sarcastically. She was irritated, but smiled to herself as she provoked Kana, who stood, taken aback and speechless. "So… I'm sorry. I can't even understand why you'd want my place, but it's something you and I can't change. Is it?"

"Wha- Ugh, What are you talking about?! Shut up! Shut up!" Kana raised a solid hand to slap her.

"Try it. Would it make you feel better," she asked flatly. The moment Kana raised her hand, Yuubi knew that she was right. One of the things that she absolutely despised was being threatened, especially physically. She looked up at Kana with a seriousness in her eyes asking her to do it, and Kana couldn't bring herself to, wondering what would happen if she did. Tears began to stream down the pretty girl's face as her hand in the air began to tremble it's way back down to her waist. _Ugh, wait... why's she crying... _Yuubi's expression suddenly loosened up.

"You're so mean," Kana shouted, before running out the door.

"- What?!" She laughed slightly, making half an effort to catch the girl and tell her there's no reason to be jealous anyway.

_Awkward... _She slowly turned around to face the other spectators, who had been watching the event. _Oh gosh, i definitely was not supposed to fight with a customer. _She scratched the back of her head and laughed nervously, "uhh, sorry guys..." They were silent.

"No worries," Kyoya finally spoke up in a flat tone. "You just need to get a 1,000 more requests now for screwing that up so badly."

She stood there with her jaws on the floor. _WHAT! How am i going to get a thousand?! ajfkdkgjhjkf... _"... Ah fine," she hesitantly shrugged.

"You just lost my loyyyyaaaaaaal princess," Tamaki cried, stretching his right arm as if he was reaching for the doors that Kana left.

"Tamaki senpai... she was trying to hit her and look at what she did," Haruhi defended, pointing at Yuubi's coffee soaked clothing.

Hikaru and Kaoru curiously rushed over to Yuubi. "Hey are you alright," Kaoru asked worriedly, examining her. His eyes grew bigger when he came across a bright red wound on her arm. It was obvious that Kana was trying to burn her.

Yuubi sensed Kaoru's alarm, hid her arms under her sleeves, and readily replied, "yeah! I'm good! It's just a bit of coffee. I said some mean things too anyway... but thanks for the concern, Kaoru." She faced him with a gentle smile, which he felt a slight blush across his cheeks. _What?! KAORU! You are so NOT blushing. Stop, that's a boy right there, _he thought to himself, shaking his head.

"Uhmm yeah whatever… Let's just get you a change of clothes," Kaoru replied, directing his eyes away from her.

"Ah, I guess. Since I have to work the whole day, huh? Is it okay if I wash up first, then just borrow a shirt and pants?"

"Anything for the rookie," Hikaru added.

She washed up in the private individual host club showers; it was a school for rich kids, so yeah, that kind of privacy existed. _Crap, _she thought. _They didn't give me the change of clothes yet… _She threw on her coffee drenched oversized button up and skinny fit trouser pants and went outside.

"Guys … can I borrow the clothes now," she asked, drying her short hair with a towel.

"WHY OF COURSE YOU MAYY," Tamaki sang, snapping his fingers.

"YEAH, ALREADY ON IT BOSS," Hikaru and Kaoru rushed over, grabbed her, and pulled her into the fitting room. "Wear this," they exclaimed, handing her a comfortable looking tee and long pants. Her eyes lit up as she took the change of clothes. She paused. They were still in the fitting in with her. The three of them stood there awkwardly staring at each other. "So…. Are you going to change?" The twins asked impatiently.

"Wait… Aren't you guys going to leave the dressing room," she asked laughing nervously.

They tilted their heads at her in confusion. "Why dude? Just change in front of us, we aren't gay," Hikaru claimed, tapping his foot in impatience.

"… Well, I'm actually a girl, I already told you guys, didn't I?" She began to laugh. Their mouths dropped. _Finally they believe me. _"Yeah! Let that sink in for a while…" she said, pushing their paralyzed bodies out of the room.

She left the dressing room after she changed and was greeted by the host club members, surrounding her and staring at her in shock – well more like, Tamaki and the twins.

"WHAT?! SO YOU'RE A GIRL?!" Tamaki shouted, pointing at her in horror.

"Yeah! I already told you! Is there a problem," she asked, crossing her arms.

"NOO WAY! MOTHER! MOTHER! IS YUUBI-SAN ACTUALLY A GIRL?!"

Kyoya chuckled and raised his glasses. "Why yes… She is"

The idiotic trio of the host club all screamed in unison; their jaws dropping to the floor, while the others nodded in agreement. Tamaki, followed close behind by the Hitachiin twins, crawled over to Honey, Haruhi and Mori. "YOU GUYS KNEW THIS TOO?!" He shouted, grasping their legs.

"YUP! YUP! Yuubi-chan told us the first day," Honey giggled. "Remember, Tamaki-san?"

"Yeah I mean she did tell us, so it's really no surprise," Haruhi stated. "Senpai… you guys are dumb for not believing her in the first place."

"HARRUUHIII! HOW CAN YOU CALL DADDY DUMB?!" Tamaki suddenly latched onto her and embraced her. "TAKE IT BACK HARUHI."

"No Senpai! Get off me," she said. The two disappeared into their own world.

Mori calmly nodded at the rest of the members. "She looks like a girl… doesn't she?"

"Huh?" Yuubi looked at him briefly before speaking again. "Thanks Mori Senpai," she said blushing slightly at the unexpectedly kind comment.

The twins quickly approached her and inspected her, walking in several circles around her examining at her face extremely closely, causing her to feel uncomfortable. They finally sighed, concluded with a "man, I can't really tell…" and took a seat on the ground. A rage mark appeared on her forehead. She pulled out her ID and whipped it in front of their faces. "There. Female. Haha! What's so hard to believe about it anyways?" She laughed and crossed her arms, watching the two twins carefully examine the ID, occasionally pulling it away from each other and bickering about who got to see it first. She shrugged. _How did I get myself in this crazy group of host club members anyhow? Oh yeah, ARGGHH I broke that vase..._


	7. Chapter 7

It was mid autumn; the leaves flooded the grounds with numerous shades of yellows, oranges and reds, giving the sky a fluorescent tone. She stared out the window of the classroom, chewing on the top of her pen.

"Yuubi-san… Yuubi-san," a voice called out impatiently. She snapped back into reality and turned to face the lean figure, with its hands on its hips, where the voice was coming from. It was Kaoru. "Jeez, Yuubi… I was calling your name for like a full five minutes," he pouted, faced the window and stretched. "Anyways I'm bored; let's go get lunch." He reached over and grabbed her wrist.

"What? Where's Hikaru," she asked, stopping his pull and looking around for the other orange haired boy. Kaoru's vibe felt different today; she didn't know whether to feel concerned or go along with it. There was a subtle air of anxiety that surrounded him. She figured, maybe, it was just the work of her imagination, but it still bothered her.

"He's sick… so he didn't come today…. Now I'm super bored and super hungry, so come on let's go!" This time he pulled her out of her seat and ran towards the cafeteria.

"Ahh wait Kaoru! I have my sandwich in my bag."

"Ugh! Noo way, we aren't going back. I'll just buy for you today," he laughed.

"WHAT?! No way! I'll just eat later then!"

"NO! I'm paying!"

"No! I swear, it's fine"

"Yeah yeah, can you be quiet now? I'm ordering," his expression was blank as he faced the cafeteria lady. "Hi, can I get two orders of steak please. Yeah, the combos for both."

"HEY! No cancel the second order of steak please," she butt in.

"Nah, just ignore her," he said, sticking his tongue out at her.

She finally gave in when it was clear that the lady decided to choose to listen to Kaoru's request instead of hers. "Thanks Kaoru…" she sighed. "Sorry about that…"

"Hehe! Anytime," he laughed, roughly messing up her hair with his hand. "… And why are you sorry? That's what I'm here for! Now let's go sit."He grabbed her by the wrist once again and led her to an empty table. "Eat up," he smiled. "I know you love to eat."

"HAHA! Is it really that obvious," she asked laughing and feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Duh." He stabbed a piece of steak with his fork and put it in his mouth. "Come on! What are you staring at?! Eat!"

"Huh?" She looked at the deliciously cooked medium rare steak in front of her and decided to take a bite. Her eyes lit up instantly, almost forming into hearts. She tried to hide her bliss by taking slower bites and looking down. Her eyes flickered to meet his, who already was staring her. He began to laugh.

"I know it's really good, isn't it? It's my favorite order in the cafeteria… Hikaru always gets the pasta while I always get the steak," he recalled as his eyes shifted towards the side. She watched him momentarily and then, spoke.

"You seem quite different without him around."He looked at her; Haruhi had once told him the same thing. "I mean, it's not a bad thing at all. You seem more mature… but you seem happier around him. He brings out a different side of you... By the way, is he okay?"

"Yeah…" He looked down to his food, gulping down what felt like a large chunk of steak. She leaned down and faced her head up diagonally towards his.

"Ehh… liar…" He pointed his gaze at her; he wore a vulnerable expression. "Your face says he's not… Well if you need to talk to somebody, you can tell me what happened," she reassured.

"Uhh… well… he's not exactly just sick," he looked away from her, not believing that he was about to tell her. Suddenly, a shadow of concern cast over her face. "It's a little more serious than that…"

"Then what…?"

"I didn't want to tell anybody at school or the host members because I didn't want to worry them… But I think I can trust you…" Kaoru paused. "... Well, Hikaru passed out this morning; he had trouble getting up, and at first, I thought he was just being lazy... So I ignored it, then he wouldn't get up, so I ran over to him and saw he was covered in sweat… I got my parents and we immediately called the ambulance, of course, but they forced me to go to school today since I was fine." He covered his face with his hands. "Now he's alone in there and I have no idea what's going on... I'm really worried about him."

She sighed sadly and looked down at her hands, thinking if there was any way for her to possibly help him. On instinct, her warm hands rested over his. He looked up her, who was now smiling gently at him. "Do you want to find out?"

"Huh?"

"Do you want to find out?"

"… How?" His facial expression became doubtful.

"Do you know which hospital he's in? and the room?"

"Umm yeah. It's the one on Brookers street. But how is that –" Before he could finish his sentence, she grabbed him by the arms and pulled him out of the cafeteria, throwing away their finished food on her way out. "Where are we going," he asked as she dragged him outside of the campus.

"Going to check on Hikaru obviously! How much do you got?"

"Umm… A lot…" he hestated.

"Ok!" She let go of him and ran into the street.

"Hey! Where are you – that's dangerous," he shouted running after her.

"Get inside," she had flagged a taxi, soon pushed him inside and followed behind, taking a seat on the worn out leather seat of the car. "To the hosipital on Brookers please." He just stared at her in awe and surprise. He didn't know how to express his appreciation to her. When she looked over at him and smiled, he immediately shifted his gaze away from her and towards the outside of the taxi window; his cheeks tinted with an extra shade of pink.


	8. Chapter 8

"I'm here for my brother, Hikaru Hitachiin," Kaoru said when he finally reached the front desk of the hospital.

"Room 595"

"Oh ok! Thank you!" He ran straight through the hallways toward the elevators and Yuubi quickly followed.

"595…" They stood in front of a large sterilized white door. Kaoru grasped the handle loosely and turned it gently. "Hikaru… Can I come in," he asked politely, slowly opening the door.

No answer.

They decided to step in anyway. The orange haired twin was dressed in bleach white pajamas with light blue pinstripes and seemed to be in deep slumber. They sighed, feeling somewhat relieve and exhausted at the same time. They took a seat by his bed and talked quietly to each other.

"He looks so peaceful for once hahahah," Yuubi whispered teasingly.

Kaoru laughed and nodded in agreement. "Sometimes, I wish he could just stay quiet like this". At the moment the words made themselves out of his mouth, Hikaru's eyes sprung open.

"KAORU?!"

"Ahh~ Hikaru?"

"What… are you guys doing here," Hikaru gasped.

"I was SO worried about you…" Kaoru immediately replied, grabbing Hikaru's hand. "Are you okay? How are you feeling?"

"Yeah! Kaoru was worried sick about you… You should've seen it –"

"BUT I CANT BELIEVE YOU GUYS CAME ALL THE WAY HERE! YOU IDIOTS!"

They froze, their expressions now flooded with confusion, shock and horror.

"Hey," Yuubi shouted. "We were just worried about you! Kaoru told me what happened in the morning! It's no wonder we're so worried!"

"Oh my god. Oh my god," Hikaru laughed. "You guys… ARE SO GOING TO KILL ME."

"HUH?!" Kaoru's face changed into anger. "HIKARU. WHAT DID YOU DO?!" He grabbed his brother by the collar and shook him violently.

"I…I WONT TELL YOU UNLESS YOU STOP," Hikaru yelled.

"TELL ME!"

"YEAH! WHAT IS IT?!"

Hikaru smirked, making the other two feel uneasy. Kaoru stopped shaking him. "I just pretended to faint this morning because I had a big exam that I didn't study for! ANYWAYS I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU TWO SKIPPED CLASS TO SEE ME!"

"WHAT THE – HIKARU!" Yuubi scolded.

Kaoru dropped Hikaru back onto the hospital bed and stood there speechless.

"Thank god… Thank god…" Kaoru fell onto Hikaru's chest, nearly in tears. "I thought that something terrible happened to you… I thought I might lose you."

Hikaru wrapped his arms around his brother's head and smiled, "Kaoru… don't be silly… you idiot… Why would you come all the way here?"

Yuubi stared at the two brothers in utter confusion; a sweat drop ran down the back of her head. "Ermm.. Sorry to interrupt your romance movie guys… But Hikaru… How did you fake the fainting? Kaoru told me you were sweating…"

Hikaru smirked and proudly responded, "hot shower, which raised my body temperature in the morning and made it feel like I was sweating."

"Huh… What about the hospital? If there wasn't anything wouldn't they have sent you back home?"

"Heh… heh… This is the Ootori family hosipital."

"Ootori?"

"WOW! HOW COULD I FORGET, THIS IS THE OOTORI ONE!" Kaoru shouted.

"The nurses know me and I told them the situation… and you know, they thought it was hilarious. So I've just been napping all day," he stretched lazily on the bed.

_Wow, all this to skip an exam… These kids are something else… _Yuubi thought, blankly staring at the brothers. "Well… you're very lucky to have a brother who cares about you this much," she concluded with a big smile. "We dropped everything and left just to check up on you! Anyways we're glad you turned to be just fine!"

Hikaru's eyes widened and looked at the two individuals who stood over him, and then down to his hands. "Sorry," he murmured. "Sorry I made you guys skip your classes and worry over me."

They looked at him in surprise. _He's apologizing now?! _

"Ehh, I hate going to class anyways," Yuubi casually responded, slightly shifting her view away from him.

"Mhmm! Me too," Kaoru quickly nodded, brightly smiling at his brother. "Besides I would much rather be with you!"

Hikaru smiled back, got up from the hospital bed and began to change. "Well! Let's go to the host club!"

"What are you –" Yuubi exclaimed, covering her eyes.

"Huh?! What's wrong," Hikaru asked, unbuttoning his shirt. "Oh SHIT! You're a girl!" he blushed. "Well get out then! What are you staring for?!"

"What?! Who's staring and at what?" She was laughing now and walking out the door. "You're the one that started to undress so suddenly."

Soon after, the twins, with their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders, came outside the hospital room, nicely dressed in their matching school uniforms. "Let's go," they said.

The three flagged a cab and made it back into campus and then, into the usual music room three.


	9. Chapter 9

**So, how are you guys enjoying the story so far? Which characters are you rooting for? What are your likes and dislikes so far? I'd really like to hear your feedback! And sorry for updating so quickly… haha! I just had a lot of ideas for the later scenes; you know what I'm saying? :P Can't wait to share them with you!**

* * *

"Nee nee! You guys missed all the customers today! Where have you guys been," Honey asked with cake stuffed in his face, bouncing up and down.

"Hahaha um yeah I know. Sorry about that… well, we're here now, Senpai," Hikaru laughed, scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, there you guys are," Haruhi walked up to them. "You guys both skipped your exams today…" she looked at the two orange haired twins in disappointment and sighed. "You better do well on your retake. I heard it's going to be harder than today's."

Yuubi laughed as she faced the twins, whose faces suddenly went pale. "Yeah, good luck you guys." She gave them a pat on the back and headed towards the table where Mori and Kyoya were sitting. It was after hours, so the members were hanging out before they went home.

Tamaki hurriedly stopped her, dashed towards them with his arms stretched out as if he was reaching for a hug. _surprise surprise. _"THERE YOU GUYS AREEEEEEEEEEE!" he shouted dragging her back to Hikaru and Kaoru. "WHERE WERE YOU MY CHILDREN?! HARUHI AND I WERE WORRIED SICK ABOUT YOU, WEREN'T WE, HARUHI," he asked latching onto her with tears the size of waterfalls streaming down his face.

"Whoa… what… how are you actually crying right now? Maybe, you should get into acting," Yuubi teased.

Haruhi and the twins laughed. Yuubi made her way back to the table once more, until her path was blocked by Kyoya. _AHH GETTING TO MY SEAT IS A REAL STRUGGLE TODAY. _

"Yuubi-san, somebody called the host club looking for you today."

"Huh? A call… for me?"

"Yeah, her name was… uh… Rena-san, I think."

"Ah?! Rena-chan?!" Her eyes brightened in excitement. "What'd she say?"

"Well she told me you couldn't afford a cell phone… so she decided to call here," he chuckled, noticing a change in her facial expression. "You can call her back."

"CAN I?!"

"Yeah… Here. I dialed the number for you."

"Thanks Kyoya!" she smiled, holding the phone up to her ear and dancing to the ringtone.

_Why is she so happy? _He thought to himself, looking at her curiously.

"_Hello?_" A familiar voice answered the phone.

"Rena! HOW ARE YOU?!"

"_AHH! YUUBI-CHAN?! IS THAT REALLY YOU?!"_

"YA IT'S ME, STUPID. ARE YOU STILL IN EUROPE OR?"

"_OH MY GOD. NO WAY! AND NAH DUDE, I'M IN JAPAN NOW! VISITING! I NEED TO SEE YOU! HOW ARE YOU?! I'VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH! SOMEONE TOLD ME HEARD YOU'RE AT OURAN HIGH SCHOOL … SO I CALLED THEM AND THEY GAVE ME THIS NUMBER TO A HOST CLUB?!"_

"WHAT? NO WAY! ARE YOU SERIOUS?! YOU'RE HERE?! NOW?! SINCE WHEN?!" Few of the host club members have now stopped their conversations with each other and inquiringly staring at her on the phone.

"_I JUST FLEW IN YESTERDAY! I'VE BEEN LOOKING FOR A WAY TO CONTACT YOU ALL DAY! I KNOW IT'S THURSDAY, BUT LET'S MEET UP TONIGHT! WE CAN GO OUT LIKE OLD TIMES!"_

"YES! DEFINITELY, SEND ME THE ADDRESS. I'LL GIVE YOU MY HOUSE NUMBER…"

"_ALRIGHT! CALL THIS NUMBER WHEN YOU GET HOME! I'LL TALK TO YOU LATER!"_

"OKAY! I'M LEAVING SCHOOL SOON ANYWAYS, BYE RENA," she hung up the phone; her face beaming with glee. The other members stared at her as she strolled her way to the area where they were sitting.

"Who was that," Hikaru asked with a hint of irritation in his voice.

"Yuubi-san. You seem very close to that person," Haruhi commented with a smile.

"Oh yeah! It was my friend Rena. I haven't seen her ever since she moved to Europe… Now I finally get to see her after all this time, well… it's only been almost a year," she laughed. "But she's been with me through everything."

"Hmph… Me and Hikaru were going to go out today," Kaoru added, looking at her through the corner of his eye, slightly blowing up his cheeks and crossing his arms. "I guess you aren't coming then."

"Yeah… guess you don't want to come," Hikaru added. "Oh yeah. Haruhi, do you want to come?"

"Hmm… where are you guys going?" Haruhi asked Hikaru.

"Heh…" Yuubi wore a big goofy smile. "Sorry."

"NEE NEE! YOU GUYS DIDN'T TELL THE OTHER HOST MEMBERS THAT YOU GUYS WERE GOING OUT" wailed Honey senpai. "WHERE YA GUYS GOING ANYWAYS? THAT'S SO RANDOM. HUH USA-CHAN?"

Both brothers blushed, feeling like they've been called out for something. "Uhh… we're just going to have a nice dinner out. Duh," Hikaru quickly retorted, after the embarrassing pause.

"WELL LET'S ALL GO TONIGHT," shouted Tamaki. "IT WILL BE A HOST CLUB EVENT. EVERYONE IN THE CLUB MUST COME."

Yuubi was taken aback. "WHAT?! THAT'S SO UNFAIR. YOU GUYS KNEW I WAS GOING OUT TONIGHT! WAIT I CAN'T GO."

"We'll cut off a large portion of your debt if you come," Kyoya slyly whispered behind her ear.

"Nah… Sorry Kyoya, your bribery won't work on me today. I'm going to see Rena tonight. I'll just work off my debt gradually. Besides, I can hang out with you guys another night… Anyways I'm leaving," she smiled and waved at them as she headed out the door. "See you guys later."


	10. Chapter 10

When she arrived to her little empty apartment, she threw her bag to the side of the room and began to get ready for the night with Rena. She easily decided to go with red lipstick and an all black look: slim boots in skinnies and a thin knit sweater under a long coat. She hadn't been able to wear a look like this in school, since she had to be conscious of presenting herself as a boy. Another phone call with Rena earned Yuubi the address to the place where Rena wanted to meet. She took the metro and hurriedly made her way to the location.

_A karaoke bar, _she thought as she faced the location of the address that Rena had given her. _Of course, Rena __would __choose a place like this, _she smiled to herself and walked inside. The sound of music along with the mediocre singing voices of drunken people and colorful lights projected by cheap plastic disco balls surrounded her as she entered. It was her Thursday, a part of her felt somewhat revived.

"Where is Rena's room," she asked the young man at the front desk.

"Room 4," he replied, pointing down the hallway.

"Oh thank you!"

She opened the door to Room 4 and was greeted immediately by a group of about 7 people. Few of them screaming her name and running to embrace her, and the others she had yet to meet.

"YUUBI! MY LOVE. YOU LOOK GREAT. COOL AS ALWAYS" Rena jumped on her and hugged her around her neck. Her eyes were bright and her hair was long and golden brown as always, perfectly framing her small face; every guy fell for her, which was why there were 6 other guys with her. She was just wearing a dressy tank top tucked under a short pencil skirt.

"Rena-chaaann. Where are your clothes," she teased, laughing. "Jeez. You never change."

"Ah hey! I have a jacket right here! It's just hot in here," she defended herself, sticking her tongue out.

Yuubi laughed and took a seat on one of the sofas in the room, leaning back on it and reading through the menu. "So, I'm guessing they don't card here," she asked laughing.

"EHEH OF COURSE NOT SILLY!" Rena laughed, playfully pushing Yuubi. "OVER THERE, my friend Jun-san knows the owner and all the workers here. He already ordered like SOO many drinks. We'll die tonight."

He gently waved at Yuubi. "Nice to meet you, Yuubi-san"

"Ah YEAH! Nice to meet you too," she smiled.

Before she could shake his hand, Rena pounced on her. "Yuubi! Smoke break?"

"Ah yeah! I guess I'll talk to you late Jun-san." She followed Yuubi outside.

"Hehe, I just wanted to get out of there for a little, since it's so loud," Rena winked, handing Yuubi a cigarette and lighting her own. "We haven't seen each other in forever… How are you? I know life must be hard for you right now…"

"Huh?" Yuubi took a puff from her cigarette. "I'm doing okay. Thanks Rena! You always worry about me so much! I mean it's been a long while since it's happened. I should be used to it by now," she laughed, while Rena frowned.

"Well… if you ever need me, please ask. I know you're strong, but I want to be there for you."

"Haha! I'm barely as strong as paper. I'm fine, I promise," she smiled at her long time friend. "Let's just have a good time tonight, okay? No worrying over me!"

Rena's eyes widened, but her expression soon changed to a smile. "Yeah sure! You done yet? Let's go back inside," she said, throwing her cig on the ground and stomping it.

They went back in Room 4. "The beer has arrived," Rena sang, taking a cup on the table and then seating herself on the sofa next to Yuubi, who also took a cup for herself. "Cheers to Yuubi's art career!"

"Ah Rena! That's not fair! Cheers to Rena's successful future," Yuubi playfully raised her glass. The two sang – no more like, screamed – songs all night.

"Hey. Your name is Yuubi, right?" One of the guys leaned close to her while the other guys were singing. The young man looking at her had pale porcelain skin, somewhat narrow but colorful bluish green eyes, and neat brunette hair. Rena had told her about him before, how attractive he was.

"Um… yeah. And you?"

"Brian Koller. I'm from Europe."

"Oh that's cool!"

"Yeah," he nodded and moved even closer to her. "Anyways I think you're really really cute… I heard you're living alone, so I was wondering if you wanted some company tonight." He reached his arm over her shoulders.

"HAHA! Um thanks but no thanks Brian," she replied uncomfortably, slowly pushing him away.

"Whoa. Why the rejection," he frowned.

"Not rejection," she laughed nervously and pointed at the television screen. "It's your turn to sing."


	11. Chapter 11

Rena hopped next to Yuubi. "Hey hey!"

"Hey!"

"Oh yeah! I was meaning to ask you… Yuubi, you are in a host club at Ouran?!"

"Oh yeah that. Haha!"

"What's it like? I heard the guys there are amazingly cute," she squealed.

"Huh?" Yuubi recalled images of the host members in her head. "I guess… I'm not really sure," she laughed, scratching the back of her head.

"Come on Yuubi! You're around them all the time! Why don't you try to date them?!"

"Because I don't like them like that!"

"So? They're rich…" she sighed and leaned back on the sofa. "You gotta snag them while you can Yuubi… when will you ever learn?"

"Ehh! I really don't care about that," Yuubi sighed and leaned back as well, looking at the ceiling. Her face was glowing red from the drinks, making her feel a little loopy. "Why can't people just love someone for who they are?" The whole group, hearing that statement, burst into laughter. "You guys! I'm suuuryyous," she laughed. "Why is it soooo funny to you guys?"

They just sighed and patted her on the shoulder, complimenting her with several "good one"s and "omg you're hilarious" until she gave up trying to show how serious she was and just continued singing and chatting with the others.

It wasn't long until she found Brian moving to the seat next to her again. They were almost about to leave. "Hey," he smiled, handing her another drink. "How did you enjoy the night?"

"Hey. And, it was pretttaaay fun," she replied, taking a sip from the drink. She didn't know why she was still drinking. She already felt dizzy, the temperature in her face rising higher by the minute.

"Let's leave together."

"That's okay. I can go home by myself."

"No, I don't you can. Jun seems to be taking your friend Rena home… I'll take you home"

"It's alright," she insisted. "I can go home by myself"

"No you can't," he said, bringing his face close to hers and looking at her straight in the eyes. "Trust me you can't go home alone. You can come with me or I can take you."

"Oh my god. Please let go of my hand. I can go home alone," she pleaded.

"Nope. Come on," he hugged her, walked to the street and flagged a cab. As soon as she knew it, they were in front of her doorstep. "Can I come in," he asked.

"Brian please, go home now," she asked. "It's like 3am in the morning and I have school tomorrow."

"Come on… just let me in," he leaned into her again. "I heard you don't like rich guys… I can be the first one you'll ever like… Come on."

"No, please." She attempted to push him away, but he resisted.

"Fine then… How about just a kiss, at least, for taking you home," he suddenly grabbed her face and forcefully pulled her soft lips against his, closing his eyes.

Her eyes widened in horror._ What a filthy human being._ She punched his chest and his face, desperately trying to push him away. She soon released herself by biting his lip really hard. He let go. Few tears began to run down her face as the event hit her. She couldn't believe that someone could be so forceful, so demanding, so unrefined. There were no signs of shame written across his face – all she saw on his face was a smirk of pride, pride that he had kissed by force, not through mutual liking, but on his own will.

"What the hell do you think I am," she scolded before she ran into her apartment and slammed the door. The event sobered her up a little bit; she washed, changed and got straight into bed. She sat on the bed for hours, leaning her back against the wall and bringing her knees close to her chest. She wrapped her arms around them and rested her head on them, in disbelief of what had happened. It was 5am; she had school tomorrow, so she lied down on the bed and disappeared under her covers protecting herself from the cold air of her dark empty apartment and forcing herself to go to sleep.

* * *

Yuubi felt as if she was about to collapse during her subway ride to school the next morning. It was Friday. She had actually made her way onto campus without falling asleep. She walked towards her classroom 11-C, Algebra 2. She let out a loud sigh and concluded that she couldn't go. The teacher was far too stringent to let her sleep in the back corner; he would probably rip her to shreds. On that note, she drowsily turned her heel and headed towards the rooftop courtyard. She had never been there before but one of her regular clients constantly talked about the beauty of it.

After climbing up multiple grey steel stairs of the school's main building, she was there. She forcefully pushed the heavily metal door open to the rooftop and stepped inside. The leaves were still falling. The patches of grass were on platforms, about a foot or two off the ground. She walked lazily through the rooftop, dropped her bookbag and laid down on one of the grass platforms, beginning to doze off. No one could deny how tired she was. Whether the tire came from the lack of sleep or the disturbing memory of the last night was debatable.


	12. Chapter 12

It was thirty minutes into class. Hikaru and Kaoru stared questioningly at the empty desk in the back corner of their classroom. They both felt weirdly irritated at the sight of the empty desk, even though all she did in that class was stare out the window most of the time. The younger one spoke up, "hmm… I wonder where our toy for Algebra 2 is…"

"Who cares. Probably with Rena or whatever," Hikaru scoffed. "Well we have Haruhi in our next class so we won't have to be bored."

"Bu- Mhm," Kaoru hesitated to agree, but he felt too tired to disagree. He glanced at the desk once more.

The classes dragged on longer than usual. Maybe they were tired from the night out with the host club members. Anyways, they wanted to jokingly rub it in Yuubi's face: how much fun they had without her. _She would surely be at the host club after school, wouldn't she?_ After what seemed like days of being glued onto a chair, the last class of the day was finally excused. The two twins and Haruhi walked to the host club, just like every other Friday.

"WHATTTTTTTTT?! WHAT DO YOU MEAN?!" Tamaki's booming voice rang through the ears of everybody in Music Room 3 as the three friends entered the room. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED?..." There was a pause. Hikaru and Kaoru had their fingers in their ears as Haruhi slouched in annoyance. "HIKARU, KAORU!" Tamaki shouted, snapping his fingers in urgency.

They immediately snapped into their loyal servant characters. "YES, MASTER," they asked in unison, saluting to their host club leader.

"YOU GUYS HAVE MORNING CLASS WITH YUUBI, RIGHT?!" They nodded slowly, wondering where this question was going to take them. "WAS SHE HERE THIS MORNING?" They shook their heads. "WHAT?! MOMMMY! MOMMY! WHAT DO WE DO?!" Tamaki called out to the boy with glasses in the corner with a clipboard.

"Well… what's wrong," Kyoya asked flatly, not looking up from his clipboard.

"MOMMY! ONE OF OUR CHILDREN'S GONE MISSING!" Tamaki yelled, pleading for Kyoya for an answer. He nodded, still scribbling on his clipboard, refusing to break his gaze from it.

"Eh… she probably just ditched class to go hang out with Rina," Hikaru said, feeling a tinge of jealousy.

"WELL IDIOT… RENA'S THE ONCE CALLING ME RIGHT NOW CONCERNED ABOUT WHERE SHE IS… SO THAT CANT BE IT… CAN IT? APPARENTLY, RENA SAW ONE OF HER GUY FRIENDS HARRASSING YUUBI INTO LETTING HIM TAKE HER HOME AND RENA HASN'T HEARD FROM YUUBI SINCE THEN!" The members of the host club felt a sudden anxiety rush through their body. They stopped.

"…Jeez Tamaki senpai… How was I supposed to know," Hikaru mumbled, looking down at his feet.

"Well we should find her, wherever she is," Haruhi claimed, putting her hand on Hikaru's shoulder.

"Yeah! Let's!" Kaoru worriedly ran out the door._ Is she okay? What guy saw her as a girl?_

"AH~ Kaoru! Wait up" Hikaru chased his younger brother out the door, quite surprised at Kaoru, who was usually the calmer and more collected of the two._ Shit. Where did she go?_

"OK! LET'S GO! SPLIT UP EVERYONE AND GIVE ME A CALL WHEN YOU FIND HER," Tamaki shouted, pointing at the door. He, Honey, Haruhi, and Mori rushed out of the door. Kyoya sighed, put down his clipboard, and walked out behind them. They couldn't tell how long and how many times they had searched the buildings of the school campus.

"Mori! Mori!" Honey's eyes lit up. "Look!" Mori calmly walked towards Honey, who was jumping up and down, pointing inside a classroom, A14.

"The art room?" Mori looked inside.

"Yup yup," Honey giggled as he stepped inside the room full of easels and canvas. He approached the one with orange and yellow leaves. It looked as if it had been erased or restarted as white paint covered a huge portion of the piece. "Look! It's Yuubi's piece! She must've worked really hard on it," he exclaimed, smiling happily at it and pointing at the name tag.

"Huh…" Mori said. "It's nice. That girl really does love autumn…"

"And…. And… and sweets…" Honey drooled. "That's how me and Usa-chan really got to know her! No one ate sweets with me as much as she did until she joined the club… Most of the time it was just me and Usa-chan eating alone at our table… so we have to find her," he beamed up to his giant friend with a big silly smile.

"Ah," Mori nodded as his lips curved into a gentle smile. "Let's go." He threw Honey on top his shoulders and exited the room.

* * *

The sky was vivid blue as she slowly opened her eyes. She groaned at the sunlight that stung her opening eyes, shielding them with her hands. _What time is it? _She sat up to check her watch. The cool breeze softly picked up some leaves and blew across her face, ruffling her short hair. It felt nice. She lazily looked at the time. _4:45pm WHAT?! DID I REALLY SLEEP THROUGH ALL OF MY CLASSES?! I SHOULD BE AT THE HOST CLUB RIGHT NOW. _

"Well well… looks like I found the damsel in distress," a familiar voice coldly called from behind. She turned around but couldn't make out who it was because the glare was in her eyes. She had a big idea who it was though.

"Kyoya-senpai?..."

"Looking uglier than usual," he said with an empty smile.

"I'm tired," she yawned.

"Yeah, it shows."

"Is there a problem," she asked, laughing now. He did not return the laughter.

"Anyways, I don't know how why anybody would let themselves collapse on a rooftop alone for hours..."

"Ehh… It felt nice," she shrugged.

"Well, it's not smart. If you're going to collapse, collapse at Music Room 3," he demanded, furrowing his brows.

His voice had suddenly become stern. She looked up to him in surprise and then a smirk came across her face. "Haha. Fine. " She stared into the distance; the sun was departing and the view of the city from the rooftop was enchanting. "You really do have a warm heart Kyoya senpai… It's no wonder Tamaki senpai calls you mommy." His eyes widened as he gasped a little. He never thought of himself more than a selfish yet genius businessman – he only saw himself a little more than a sociopath. _What is she saying?_ "…But you don't have to be so worried about me. I'm fine. I'm always fine," she laughed, teasing him a little. "I'm Yuubi! The rebel type!" She stuck out her tongue and flexed her arm muscles jokingly.

"Hmph," he chuckled, raising his glasses.

" – WE RAN HERE AS SOON AS WE GOT YOUR TEXT MESSAGES!" The metal door of the rooftop slammed open.

The two looked back. It was the whole host club. "THERE YOU ARE YUUBI-CHAN," Honey sweetly exclaimed, tossing his bunny in the air repetitively.

"Yeah Yuubi-chan! We're glad to see you're okay," Haruhi smiled.

"You guys," Yuubi laughed nervously. _All this? Because I was napping?... _"Thanks for all of this… but why were you guys so worried? You know I'm a lazy pig."

"We got a call from Rena about some guy from last night trying to take you home, and thought something happened," Kaoru slightly pouted, looking away from her.

"Ahh…" she nodded, trying not to recall the images in her head.

"Did something happen," he questioned, realizing her subtle change in expression.

"Nope," she nervously laughed. "I just told him to go home, and he obviously did. Duh! Hahaha!"

"It sounds like something happened. _What_ happened," Hikaru growled, impatient at her obvious refusal to tell the truth.

"Hehe nothing! We just all hung out and left. That's all." She felt uncomfortable.

"Yeah, so Brian Koller, eh?" Kyoya raised his glasses, causing a glare to shine across it. She felt the hairs on her body stand as she heard those words. _How does he know?_

"YEAH BRIAN KOLLER. I'VE HEARD OF HIM," shouted Tamaki. "He's a slightly bit older than us, about Mori and Honey's age. And his dad is FAMOUS in Europe for owning one of the dominant car companies there. YUUBI YOU WERE WITH HIM?! How is he?!" She cringed at the question as the event began to repeat in her head.

"He's alright," she managed to say, not making eye contact with anybody.

"Oh? It says here… He's known as a playboy in Europe," Kyoya added.

The twins gasped, fuming with anger, while Honey and Mori silently and worriedly watched her in the background. She nearly choked at that statement. _Isn't that the truth,_ she thought sarcastically. "No, you guys I'm fine! Nothing happened," she forced a smile, a smile that insisted that they couldn't fight it out of her. They hesitantly nodded.


	13. Chapter 13

The weekend flew by as always since she lived alone and Monday came again. The members didn't know whether they were to drop the incident all together or just pretend they did. _Brian Koller… _sounded like a suspicious name to them. _Drop it. Drop it. It was nothing, _the twins told themselves. Other than that, it was another regular day at the host club. No cosplay, just uniforms, ladies and plenty of cake.

"Ah… Yuubi-san," one of her customers began.

"Huh?" She smiled at the girls before her, making them blush faintly and bow their heads.

"Are you maybe… maybe…" she stuttered as the other girls grabbed onto each other's hands. "Maybe…"

Yuubi laughed and lightheartedly replied, "maybe! I don't know!"

"AHH! Yuubi-kun, you're so mean," she pouted.

"Haha! You know I was only kidding," she stuck her tongue out at her. "Hehe sorry. Continue."

"Are you going to the host club dance Friday night?" The other girls sitting at the table squealed, "KYAAA~ ARE YOU YUUBI-KUN?!"

"Huh? Ahh… – What? Is there a dance Friday night," she asked; she had stopped eating the cake and looked around for the other host members for validation.

Suddenly, an arm was wrapped around her neck. _Hikaru?_ "Ladies. Of course Yuubi-kun is going! It's his first time…" The girls squealed crazily.

"I CAN'T WAIT… DANCING WITH YUUBI-KUNNN~" they all dreamily shouted, making her laugh uncomfortably.

"Yeah guys… I don't know. maybe…! So how was your day," she asked, hoping to change the subject.

The members chatted up their customers, feeding them cake, and spoiling them with played out affection until the host club finally closed. Yuubi got up from her seat and approached Tamaki, who was dramatically sipping coffee on the couch, legs crossed, and acting like a prince. "What do you want little one," he asked in a theatrical voice.

_What the… Sometimes, he's shouting his head off and others, he wants to be a refined prince. _She snapped back into reality. "Umm… I have to talk to about Friday night," she stuttered looking at her feet.

He placed the coffee cup silently and gracefully back onto its plate, took one look at her and smirked. The prince suddenly burst into loud uncontrollable laughter. Her eyes widened in absolute puzzlement and shock. He laughed for so long that a sweat drop began to run down the back of her head. _What's this?! Does he know?! _"YOU CAN'T DANCE CHILD?! HAHAHAHA!... DON'T WORRY!... HAHAHAH…. YOU DON'T HAHAHAH… HAVE TO LOOK SO HUMILIATED," he shouted through the breaths between his laughs.

"Oh my god, I shouldn't have even come to you for help," she blushed from embarrassment as she mumbled to herself.

"Eh?" The nosy twins came to circle her, examining her once again. "And you call yourself a girl?"

"Like the boy who cried wolf," Hikaru stated, subtly referring to her lies on Friday.

"The girl who can't dance," Kaoru laughed.

She bit her lip, trying not to laugh along with the twins who were teasing her.

"OKAY OKAY." Tamaki interrupted, feeling a bit forgotten. "NOW… YOU SHALL TAKE DANCE LESSONS FROM ANY OF US, DURING OPEN CLASS PERIODS, LUNCH OR AFTER HOST CLUB HOURS."

"Ah… can't I just skip the dan-?"

"NOOOOOOOOOO," the three shouted.

_Ugh. _So it began, dance lessons for 5 hours on Tuesday and Thursday. During her open periods on Tuesday, Mori senpai had volunteered to help her learn since he was the only one in the host club with an open block on that day. He entered the empty room; he was early, and she was late, typical. He took no offense; instead, he just sat on the couch with a book, crossed his legs and waited for her. She finally came running in. "I'm so sorry," she panted. "I almost forgot about the dance lessons. Were you waiting for a long time?"

He slightly laughed and shook his head, getting up from the couch. Classical music began to play. _Whoa! Where did that music come from, _she wondered, looking around the room, untilhe stuck out his long arm and showed her his hand, "shall we?"

"Huh," she hesitantly put her hand into his, feeling herself blush a little. She told herself it was from the embarrassment of not knowing how to dance. "Umm… I'm sorry that you have to teach me this… Gotta be honest, I'm a very slow learner. Hahahhaa!" He nodded and pulled her in. "Haha! Whoa!"

"Like this," he said, gripping a little tighter onto her soft small hand and slowly showing her how to step. They stepped slowly and carefully in unison, sometimes, way off beat, but she was only beginning. Whenever she would fall, he would quickly pull her up before she hit the ground and say "be careful". His patience was incomparable, and she found great appreciation for that.

"Mori senpai! You're so good at dancing," she stated in awe, which caused him to chuckle in embarrassment. Her presence gave him a strange sense of comfort; they practiced for hours, talking about their day and such. However, she still felt incapable of dancing on Friday.

He quickly picked up on her stress, and turned her around, gripping her shoulders from behind. "Huh?" She was confused. He pushed her out of the room. "Hey Mori senpai! Where are we-" There was no response. He just kept pushing her by the shoulders until they arrived at the courtyard. He took a seat on the bench.

"Don't stress yourself out. You're fine," he reassured her.

"Huh… thanks Mori senpai," she responded as her lips curved into a small smile.

"Lighten up," he said. "Keep practicing. You'll be fine by Friday."

Her eyes widened and she nodded. "Thanks Mori senpai…" She felt a sudden enthusiasm. "Well I know you're going to kill it out there!"

"Heh…" he gently placed a hand on her head, gave it a nice pat and walked away.

"Haha see you later, Senpai," she called out at the disappearing silhouette.

On Thursday, the twins had convinced Haruhi to switch places with them to help Yuubi out. She entered the room, expecting Haruhi, only to see the two orange haired twins, smiling mischievously at her. She shivered in fear. _Oh gosh, these two are DEFINITELY going to yell at me if I make a mistake. _


	14. Chapter 14

**I just wanted to thank everybody for all the reviews, follows and favorites! Tenshi D. Alicia, hehe I'm glad you liked the story, and I was really excited when you asked about Yuubi's back story! The details will slowly reveal themselves! I can't wait for that as well :) **

**And another thing! I re-wrote a section of Chapter 6 because I just didn't like it and didn't think the situation really suited her character. Thank you Bottomless pit of EMOTIONS for pointing that out for me! Let me you know what you guys think of the changes. **

**Enjoy!**

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"Uhh… How do we do this with two teachers?"

"We take turns dummy," the twins said in unison.

"So since I'm older, I guess I'll go first," Hikaru claimed, looking to the side.

"… wait… I was going to go first," Kaoru whined, but decided to step back.

Hikaru stuck out his hand, still not making eye contact with her. He felt his face get kind of hot; he didn't know why. He never really saw her as a girl, neither did his brother really. He didn't exactly consider her cute, like Haruhi who had a sweet female face even with the boy cut. Yuubi looked… too boyish, mean, unapproachable?

She placed her hand onto his with much hesitation. Her hand was soft as a cloud. He paused.

"Are you going to start," she asked, trying not to laugh at the surprised look on his face.

"Mmp.. yeah," he blushed, still avoiding eye contact. Kaoru jumped onto the piano and began to play. The two started dancing. _Man, she really sucks at dancing_, Hikaru thought watching her constantly mess up. "Is this your first lesson?"

"AHAHAH NO," she laughed; she found it both embarrassing and hilarious at the same time. "I guess it's not in my genes!"

"Yeah, you're screwed for Friday."

"Thanks Hikaru," she sarcastically replied. Because he kept nagging her, she made an extra effort to dance correctly, which resulted in her failing harder. She began to feel stressed and made no attempt to hide it on her face.

He laughed loudly at her clumsiness, "Oh gosh, Kaoru. Please try to help her out." Kaoru jogged over to her side and grasped her hand as she released them from Hikaru's. She looked at him whose amber eyes were subconsciously bright as he smiled down at her; she broke the gaze to watch the movement in her feet.

"Don't worry," he said gently. "I think you can do this."

"Huh?... I hope so… Anyways it'll all be thanks to you!"

He quickly shifted his gaze to the corner of the room as he felt his cheeks redden and muttered a quick "yeah, you're welcome." She laughed. They danced quietly to the music for about ten minutes as Hikaru gracefully played the piano. Kaoru still hadn't looked at her, and when he did, he blushed and lost his focus on dancing.

"AH WHAT?!" Hikaru's eyes widened into two white circles. "….WHATT…. HOW." The two students were on the ground.

"Ow…" Yuubi said rubbing her forehead. She opened her eyes to see Kaoru face about a few inches away from her nose. "What the – " she squirmed uncomfortably. Kaoru, upon realizing the situation, turned bright red and immediately jumped off her, almost pushing her back to the floor. "OUCH KAORU! What was that for," she laughed, recovering from the sudden push.

"Sorry" he said flatly as he looked to the side, pursing his lips. "Hikaru… you can dance with her now. I need to go to restroom." And just like that, he exited the room.

" – Hahah hey… Kaoru! Come back," his older brother called out after him, laughing at Kaoru's bizarre face as he left the room. _Hahaha! Why's he being like this? LOL does he like her? Haha. No! That can't be, _he chuckled to himself. _Don't be silly. Kaoru practically ever likes anyone._

Yuubi looked at Hikaru with confusion. "Is he okay?... I guess he had a pretty bad fall…"

"Huh? OH YEAH," Hikaru laughed. _That's it! He was embarrassed about falling 'cause he's usually so good at dancing. HAHA poor Kaoru. _"Whatever, let's continue your lesson."

She quickly glanced at the clock. "Oh hey, Hikaru! Actually, our time is up. We can go now," she smiled excitedly. _Yes!_ _I can finally stop dancing and sucking so bad haha._

He felt an unexplainable chill of annoyance at her statement. "I know," he retorted. He didn't actually know; he was speaking on impulse. "I was just going to give to some extra practice because I thought you needed it, but I guess you just want to embarrass yourself tomorrow…"

_WHAT._ She stood there absolutely appalled at his reaction. There he was, standing with his arms crossed, leaning on his left leg, and looking out the window. "I mean it's your choice…" he tried to recover, realizing what he had just said.

Her face went blank; a sweat drop ran down the back of her head. _Ahh dang it. He's mad for some reason… What am I supposed to say? Argh, omgggg… _"HAHAAHA ummm… I guess I need some help," she laughed nervously, scratching the back of her head. "Would it really be okay to help me for a little?" _Please be the right answer, _she thought to herself, closing her eyes, somewhat afraid of his response.

His eyes widened, and then, he seemed too loosen up. "Um… yeah sure… I guess I have some time." _LOL what's this!? A sudden change in attitude?! _She laughed out loud, causing him to tense up again. "WHAT?! If you don't want help then just say so!"

"No… hahahaha!… noo…" she breathed through her laughter. "I want your help… hahahaha!"

"Hmph!" He crossed his arms again and looked away from her, quickly heating up from embarrassment.

"Come on… Let's get started," she said reaching her hand out to him. He looked at her in surprise, but soon, grinned and took her hand.

Kaoru finally stepped back into the room and noticed the clock. _Huh? It's like 20minutes after time… Look at these two… They don't even care to leave… So? So? Why does that matter to me? It doesn't. It doesn't. _He violently shook his head. _What am I thinking about? Come on you just washed your face in cold water for a long time! Get it together Kaoru! …Well I must just be bored. _He nodded multiple times with an agreeing smile.

"Kaoru…? What are you doing shaking your head and nodding to yourself like that," Hikaru asked, consciously holding in his laugh in fear that Kaoru might disappear for half an hour again.

"Ah! Hikaru?!~" He blushed at his older brother, feeling vulnerable as he had just got caught in his thoughts. "Um… I was working out my neck," he concluded, nodding and shaking his head several times, praying that Hikaru would buy it.

"….? You're weird," Hikaru finally concluded after a long pause. Kaoru sighed in relief.

"Hey hey! Thanks for the lesson guys!" Yuubi ran up to the twins. "I'll see you guys tomorrow, yeah?" With that, she slapped the two on their backs, threw on her windbreaker, and ran out the door, leaving the two twins staring at her in curiosity. _Who is this girl?_


	15. Chapter 15

"Princesses and princes of Ouran High… Welcome to the annual Host club BALL DANCE," the purple-eyed leader enthusiastically announced – or arguably, shouted – into the microphone.

"As always, we have all of our members here free to dance with any of you ladies. So dance to your heart's content," Kyoya added calmly.

Yuubi uncomfortably looked around. _I'm not ready for this. _The members with her on the large stage-like staircase began to bow in unison. _Oh shit, we're supposed to bow? _She bowed. After she got up from her late bow, they began to wave at the audience. _Oh shit… wave at the audience? Wave at the audience. _She nervously waved. _I screwed that up. Hahaha. _From the floor, she saw her regulars laughing at her, knowing it was typical of their "Yuubi-kun". Excited to see that they were entertained, she laughed and eagerly waved at them, an act which resulted one of them temporarily fainting. _She completely messed up in front of the whole school and she's not even embarrassed, _thought Kaoru and Kyoya as they looked at her through the corner of their eyes. They were standing on opposite sides of her. They smiled, _the rebel type. _

After she began to loosen up, the dance became pretty fun. She scarfed down huge amounts of cheese appetizers with crackers, fancy tunas, steaks, mini sandwiches and more._ Yes. _ Swarms of girls also shyly approached her and politely asked for a dance, to which she always responded with an excited smile and an "of course", taking them by the hand. She playfully twirled them around, filling their long dresses with volume as the satins and silks reflected the beaming fluorescent lights of the room.

"You're so good," she would tell them, boosting their self-esteem until they had the courage to drop the romantic dance and just dance wildly with her. She loved it, just jumping around to the jazz, forgetting her dance lessons, and calling anything dance; she had a customer with her at all times, doing the something just as crazy along with her, so the members couldn't call her out for it. They immediately noticed her quirky disobedience and laughed; Honey even rushed over to dance with her. She quickly grabbed his arm and twirled him rowdily, which sent him into a fit of giggles. The two jumped around, dancing in all sorts of silly ways, making up their own moves.

The clock hit ten, two hours into the dance. Suddenly, Honey suddenly stopped dancing, grabbed her arm and bolted to the back room with extreme force. "Honey senpa –" she exclaimed. He let her go when they entered the room. "What was that for," she asked, noticing that the twins, Mori, Kyoya and Haruhi were there as well.

Haruhi was the only one that also seemed slightly confused. "Not again… I hope it's not what I think it is," she sighed.

The twins smirked and nodded mischievously and shoved her in the dressing room."Hurry hurry put it on," they exclaimed happily. It was only a matter of minutes until she came out in a cute long light blue dress and long hair extensions. The members beamed happily, especially the twins, who ran in to give their girl a tight hug. _Wow, she's so pretty, _thought Yuubi giving her a warm smile.

"Why am I wearing this anyways," Haruhi asked, looking at them suspiciously. "I mean I know we did this last year for the engaged couple… but what now." The orange hair boys just chuckled in response. Neither one of them wanted to tell her it was simply for their own entertainment to see her looking all dressed up. Haruhi's eyes shifted to Yuubi, "hey Yuubi-san is a girl too!" Yuubi's eyes widened. _Hell no._

The members now looked at her, who just shrugged and said, "I look really funny in a dress… plus I'm not a cute girl like Haruhi."

The twins burst into laughter and agreed, "hahahah yeah! We believe ya… we can skip Yuubi-KUNN!" She laughed as well, appreciative of their cruel humor and just glad she wasn't forced to put on a baby pink dress.

"Ummm… Can I get out of this dress now?! All you guys are doing is starin –"

"OMG HARUHIIII," Tamaki ran through the door with a pleasantly shocked look on his face, burning bright red. "YOU LOOK SOOOOOOOO…. SOOOOO CUTEEE MY DAUGHTER." He grabbed her and gave her a tight hug, lifting her up and shaking her around. "HARUHIIII…."

She sighed, "Tamaki senpai, please. I'm not your daughter. This dress is uncomfortable."

"Huh…" Yuubi watched the two members quarrel from a small distance and smiled. _They're quite adorable together. _

Kyoya put his hand on her shoulder. "Let's go back everyone. It's almost time for the climax of the night." The members hurriedly got into composure and stepped outside. They parted their ways and began to dance with their fellow students once more. Finally, it was time for the announcements. The windows of the dance room burst open, lighting up the school courtyard.

"The winner of this year's dance is –," Tamaki paused to hear the crowd. "Princess Kanako-san." A slim elegant girl in a light satin blue dress walked up to the staircase with her handsome date; he didn't seem like an Ouran student. He looked refined: tall, pale, neat brunette hair, and bright green eyes. Yuubi took a second glance at the winner's date; her eyes widened, and immediately turned around. Hikaru seemed to catch her few seconds of panic and examined the guy cautiously. He had an strange urge to go comfort her, but he couldn't fully understand it and didn't act upon it.

Princess Kanako accepted the prize and bowed in thanks, then took her date by the arms and began to walk down the staircase. The couple passed each member; her date made quite a strong eye contact with Yuubi as they passed. She slightly turned away, trying to hide the alarm in her expression. However, the eye contact was far too long and too tense to be ignored by the other members. They stared at the two in discomfort, feeling the cold awkward air.

After the host club dance ended, the members stayed behind to calculate bills, clean up and close. Haruhi asked Yuubi if she knew the date, to which Yuubi hurriedly responded with fierce head shaking.

"Why are you lying," Kyoya asked mockingly, approaching her from behind clipboard in his hand. Her eyes widened once more, looking more vulnerable than surprised. _Of course he knows. _All the members were looking at her now, waiting for the answer. "That's Brain… isn't it?"

She turned around, shrugged at him and made an attempt to play it off. "Is it? Really? I didn't know! I only met him once."

"You know it was… we saw your panic," Hikaru stated, his hands slowly curled up into a fist. _Why is she lying?!_ "What did he do?"

"I said nothing," she uncomfortably replied, forcing a laugh. "He did nothing. I just get uncomfortable seeing him because I'm shy person."

"Come on… We all know that's a lie," Tamaki butt in, surprisingly looking quite serious.

"Yeah," Kaoru decided to speak up as well, impulsively grabbing her by the wrist. "We were worried sick about you the other day! You seemed kind of different! Can you just tell us what happened?!"

"It's not even anything! Stop making a big deal of something that's not there!" There was a abrupt air of unease in the room. The members were silent. She couldn't believe she just snapped. She pulled off Kaoru's hand from her arm and retreated, "…I ….I'm going outside for a little. I promise to help clean after." With that, she left the enormous dance room, closing the large double doors behind her. _Why won't you tell us,_ Kaoru asked in his head.

She got outside and sighed. She couldn't cry about the incident; she couldn't cry about getting angry. She wouldn't allow herself too. No, she just didn't feel like it. She lit a cigarette and took a drag, watching the smoke fill the cool night air. Her nose had become red from the cold, but she would have rather faced that than the awkwardness that was inside that room. She warmed herself up by rubbing her arms with her hands.

Suddenly, a warm blazer flung across her shoulders. She looked up to see a specific orange haired boy next to her. She handed him his jacket back. "Kaoru… You're going to be cold…"

"No, it's okay. Keep it"

"No! Look at you. All you're wearing is a dress shirt!" She threw his jacket over his shoulders. "I don't want you to get sick."

"I don't want _you_ to get sick," he murmured. _Where is this coming from, _he wondered as he heard himself talk.

"I won't," she said. "I guess I was about to go inside anyways."

"Haha good. I went outside to get you back inside!"

The air in the room was still cold as the two entered the room. Their facial expressions showed that they had a lot to say, but were holding it back. With hesitation, she decided to speak up, "You guys, I'm sorry… I know all of you were just worried about me. I was selfish." She looked down at her feet, she felt almost unworthy of their concern. There was a pause.

"Soo… you're going to tell us what happened," Hikaru concluded.

"Huh?" She had forgotten the reason why this madness had started. "Umm…" she looked away.

"Just tell us already," Tamaki yelled in seriousness.

"Ok! Just stop worrying! It was really nothing! Now it's hard to say because it just got really blown out of proportion! He just took me home and forced me to kiss him... Then yeah, that's all! Hahaha!" She laughed on the outside, but in the inside, shivered at the memory of that night. In all honesty, Koller scared her. "…Why does it even matter," she mumbled coldly. They felt her distance.

The members now stood there silently, some with angry faces, some with worried faces, but both not knowing how to respond. _THAT ISN'T A BIG DEAL?! A KISS! A KISS, _they thought in their heads. She had told them repetitively not to worry, but they were worried. However, they knew not to push her to talk about it any further, so they abandoned the subject.


	16. Chapter 16

**Decided to update twice today as a Friday treat and a thank you gift to my readers! :) Hope you guys enjoy!**

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It was mid-November. "Ahhhh," she yawned obnoxiously as she stretched, sitting up on the bed. She had been reading articles all night about the powerful families in Japan for her research paper; unsurprisingly, she was very familiar with many of the names: Suoh? Ootori? Hitachiin? Mitsukuni? Takashi? She knew the names, some of the members, but she realized she didn't really have any clue about their background… _Which family shall I investigate first? _She closed her eyes and pressed a random key on her keyboard.

_O? Ahaha Kyoya senpai. _She smirked and clicked on the first link to his name. _Name: Kyoya Ootori, youngest heir to the Ootori cooperation. Birthdate: November 22. _She gasped and quickly glanced at the calendar. _Monday, Nov. 21. Ah, it's Kyoya's birthday tomorrow… I see. _She sighed sadly, carefully recalling the moments in her day at school and the host club. _I guess nobody had anything planned for him… it didn't even seem like he knew what tomorrow was… busy rich kids._

She squinted at the clock. _2am?! 2am already?! Whatever I guess I won't sleep tonight, _she decided, jumping out of her bed and running towards the kitchen. It was already his birthday. _What do I have? What do I have? _She quickly pulled out some sugar, flour, eggs, salt, lavender cardboard box for pastries, and a cookbook, a gift from her mother. Next, she ran into the room to retrieve some construction paper, wrapping paper, scissors, acrylic paint and a small stretched canvas, tripping on the way. _Ouch. _She took a few seconds to recover and laughed to herself thinking about how ridiculous she looked running around her house by herself. Her only hope that night was that she would be able to finish by the morning.

* * *

She arrived to class a little late the next morning, since she had to stop by her locker to hide the presents. "Sorry I'm late," she greeted the teacher with a warm smile and hurriedly rushed to the back of the classroom.

"Yeah yeah," the teacher laughed. "You seem like you're in a good mood today."

"Ehh.. No sleep," she shrugged. The twins looked back at her; she did look a little brighter today. By the end of class, they ran over to her desk to ask what was up. She laughed, "come on… what's today?"

"Tuesday," they responded in unison, looking at her with a straight face.

"No sillies," she frowned at them. _Do they really not know?_

After classes were over, she entered the doors of the host club. _Some of his clients should know; maybe the other members will know, _she reassured herself, feeling a little sad for Kyoya. He was a great friend, whether he knew it or not, and an integral part of the host club. He did deserve some recognition. But to her surprise… the host club ran like a completely normal day today, even Tamaki didn't even seem like knew. _Maybe, they'll do something towards the end… _she thought, slowly losing hope.

"Ahh good work today guys," Tamaki complimented his club as he closed the doors on the final customer. He sighed, leaned back on his couch, and looked towards the vice president. "Kyoya." Yuubi immediately looked up. _He knows! _"How much were the sandwiches for today?" _ARGH ARE YOU SERIOUS?!_

"Hmm? We spent about a little less than usual," Kyoya chuckled. "I'm still looking for a new company to cater for us, since they might close down soon."

They had forgotten his birthday! She couldn't believe it. She hurriedly pulled the twins, Honey, Mori and Haruhi into the back storage room. They all looked at her in confusion. "What's wrong Yuu-chan?!" Honey asked worriedly.

"You guys it's Kyoya's birthday…!" she announced, almost laughing at the sadness of this situation. Their eyes widened: _Is it his birthday? When is his birthday? Have they ever celebrated his birthday before? No. They planned their own birthdays; Kyoya just let his slide. _They bowed their heads, feeling partly selfish and partly ashamed. "Hahaha! It's okay," she laughed. "I brought a cake… we can sing to him and say we all baked it together!"

"Is… that really okay.." Kaoru hesitantly asked. He felt like a jerk. How could this be the first time they ever celebrated his birthday?

"Yeah it's better that way," she excitedly reassured, pulling out the sparkler candles and cake from the box and putting them on top of the cake. "Haruhi, go tell Tamaki, and then, someone go turn off the lights of the room." She handed Kaoru the cake and pulled out the lighter.

"On it!" Honey and Mori rushed out of the room.

"Haha fine. I'll go tell Tamaki," Haruhi shrugged and walked out.

"Whoa… Why did the lights turn off…" Kyoya asked Tamaki, who ignored the question and smiled.

"Let's go," she exclaimed, lighting up the sparklers on the cake and pushing Kaoru out of the storage room. Hikaru and she followed close behind.

"HAPPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU~~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOO YOUUU~" The host members began singing, walking to their confused vice president with a medium sparkling homemade cake. "HAPPY BIRTHDAAY TO YOUUU KYOYA SENPAI. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOO YOUU~" Kaoru smiled and gently set the cake on the table in front of the couch in which Kyoya sat.

He gasped. His eyes were wider than ever, even he had forgotten his own birthday because he learned to disregard it over the years. "You guys…" he said as his lips formed into a smile. Did the Shadow King just feel emotion?

"Make a wish," Tamaki placed a hand on his shoulder. Kyoya tried to hide his happiness by keeping his posture rigid and blew out the sparkler candles. The lights went on and the members clapped in joy, pushing him to hurry up and try the cake.

"Mmm," he said. "Who made this?"

"We did," Yuubi exclaimed, before anyone else could answer.

"It's pretty good… interesting flavor," he nodded, taking a slice for himself and cutting slices for the others. They dug in.

"AHHHHHH," the twins and Tamaki turned purple, coughing out of control. "What… is in… here…" Yuubi shrugged and started laughing loudly; her mother had given her a cookbook as a gift because she was_ so so _bad at cooking. Looks like, she never changed…

Haruhi took a bite, "Ahh… it does taste kind of weird, but I don't mind it." She smiled at Yuubi, who laughed nervously and apologized in response.

"Mhm! Me and Mori don't mind…" Honey senpai reassured, taking a big bite. "See?"

"HOW ARE YOU EATING THAT," the horrified trio of the twins and Tamaki questioned, glaring at the homemade cake in repulsion. They laughed.

"I like it," Kyoya defended as Yuubi walked up to him. "Hmm?"

"Here! Happy birthday Kyoya senpai! The youngest son of the Ootori family cooperation…. Eyes: Brown. Hair color: Brown black. Birthday: November 22." she playfully mocked him, handing him his gift, which was small but neatly wrapped and tied with a ribbon. The other members looked up at the two, wondering what it was that she gave him.

"My very first gift from a commoner," he joked back, chuckling while slowly accepting the gift.

"It's nothing really…" she said. "Sorry… wish I could've gotten you a better gift. Unwrap it when you get home… I still hope you like it."

"Heh… I probably will. I don't have much to compare to…" he murmured softly and looked back up with her with a light smile. "Thanks Yuubi."

He unwrapped the gift as soon as he closed the door of his room behind him. The ripped gift wrap revealed the back of the stretched canvas with a card stuck in between the wooden support. _A painting? Of course, she's an art student, _he smiled. He pulled out the card and began to read it: _Happy birthday Kyoya senpai! Why didn't you tell anyone? You know… you're surprisingly selfless underneath that cold front you like to put up. LOL. Well, that's your style. Anyways, I hope you have a wonderful birthday today with your friends and family! Enjoy the little gift; the idea just kind of reminded me of you. I don't really know.! –Yuubi. _He laughed, _what a bullshitter._ He pulled away the gift wrapping paper to look at the painting she had done for him. It was a surrealist style piece. There it was, a large vivid multi-colored flower – filled with bright blues, oranges, reds, and pinks – that seemed to be leaking out the borders of a much smaller traditional looking painting of three plain lavender flowers. The supposedly emotionless vice president stood there looking at it momentarily, unable to separate his gaze from it and hung it up over his bed. Even his insomnia didn't dare to visit him that day; he finally slept like a baby, for once.


	17. Chapter 17

**Hi readers! Once again, thank you so much for all your support! Please feel free to share your ideas with me!**

**To guest O.o: Thank you so much for the review! I would have loved to PM you, because I feel you wouldn't come back to read my next chapter to see this note… I understand that there has been very little or no character development at this point; it is only my second month of writing fanfiction (still no excuse, I know) and the story is still quite far from its end. But I would love to hear your thoughts on what I should do to improve! It made me more aware of my story's direction and it was a great thought to sleep on! Thank you!**

* * *

"HIKARU~ HAHAH WAIT UP!" Kaoru ran after his older brother, who was sprinting down the street. Their day was over and they were finally heading home. Due to their driver's busy schedule, the two brothers volunteered to walk home. It really wasn't too far away. Maybe, about six to seven blocks at most. Usually, they had their driver pick them up because they were just too lazy. Kaoru finally caught up as they took a left into their gated neighborhood, where they saw a tall lean brunette boy walking in front of them. His back looked extremely familiar… _Do I know this guy from somewhere,_ Kaoru asked himself.

Hikaru immediately recognized the boy or just jumped to conclusions. Either way, he approached the brunette from behind and swung him around. "Ah! Hikaru! What are you doing," Kaoru shouted after his twin, pulling him away from the brunette. He was in shock to see who his brother had found. _Koller?! Why?! _

The brunette wore an intense glare at the two Hitachiin brothers. "What was that for?"

"Is your name Brain Koller," Hikaru asked, unfazed by Koller's gaze.

"Yeah? What's it mean to you?"

"A creep."

"What?" His eyes became narrowed. "Under what context?"

"Every," Hikaru said stubbornly.

"Wow. Is this some kind of joke?" Brian turned to leave until Hikaru grabbed his arm on impulse and turned him back around.

"Yuubi Shitoyaka… What you did to her was unacceptable!" His voice rose suddenly, and he had no control of his words as they spilled out of his mouth like vomit. Kaoru's eyes widened.

Brian's lips suddenly curved into a chilling smile. "…Ahh you're the rich boys from the host club… Oh wow… Did she come crying to you guys for comfort? After kissing me like that?" He shrugged at the twins. "Girls are so easy to read nowadays. Wow, looks like she loves hopping from guy to gu-"

"That's not true," Kaoru shouted, clenching his teeth. "Yuubi's not like that. A guy like you wouldn't know."

"Aha," Brian smirked. "Look. I know she's cute, but she's just a bitch. Okay?"

"She's not cute! And, she's NOT a bitch either," the two twins immediately shouted back, blushing a little.

"Ok well… Let me tell you the truth… She kept asking me to take her home because she wanted to have a rich guy, me, drive her home. The subway really sucks you know, so I took her home and she kissed me and invited me inside. Then, I just left her because I have better things to do then hang out in that tiny apartment with her. That's why she's so upset. Hahaha! Damn, looks like she's a fox, look at how she manipulated you guys! Poor fellas, girls are dangerous these days."

Hikaru's eyes widened. "STOP! That's NOT true," Kaoru shouted, tightly shutting his eyes and clenching his fists.

"Whatever you want to believe," he shrugged. "By the looks of it, she really has you boys wrapped around your finger," he stated mockingly, pointing at the two twins.

They paused. _What is she? What if he was right? Would that make us fools? _Brian Koller knew he had won; he smirked and waved, taking his leave.

* * *

The emptiness that they felt from Brian's statement grew like a virus within their hearts and followed them throughout the rest of the day and the next day. They couldn't look at her without feeling somewhat betrayed. Of course, they didn't want to believe Brian, but their minds seemed to keep dancing around his words, highlighting them and reminding the brothers of them. Their Thursday classes seemed to breeze by as they blankly stared out windows and argued with themselves. It was time to go to the host club.

"Hey guys," she cheerfully waved and walked towards them as they walked in.

The sight of her caused the irritation to fill their heads again. "What do you mean, hey?!" Hikaru coldly snapped at her.

"Hahaha! What do you mean by what do you mean," she asked, laughing loudly. He just glared at her, while Kaoru crossed his arms and coldly faced away from her. She suddenly picked up on the cold air. "Whoa… what… wait, what's wrong?" No response, more glaring. "… Kaoru?" No response, not even a quick look. She sighed and raised up her arms as if she was surrendering, "well it's cool if you guys don't want to talk about it… but if you do, I'm here for ya anytime." She turned around to leave.

"Why did you lie," Hikaru spat.

"What," she asked, both confused and shocked. _Oh gosh, what is this?! _

"Why did you lie," he repeated in a louder voice. The host club members were all looking at them now.

_Haha damn, it's a scene now! What is this?! _"Wait Hikaru… I really have no idea what you're talking about…" she tried to clarify.

"YOU LIED ABOUT THAT NIGHT!" Mori, Honey, Tamaki, Kyoya, and Haruhi had now circled the three.

"Hahaha what night? Oh my god. Stop yelling," she laughed nervously. _Ugh, what is he talking about?_

Kaoru put his hand on Hikaru's arm to comfort him and coldy said, "that night with Brain Koller… You lied about it didn't you?" _Oh shit, _Tamaki thought, quickly herding the customers out of the room.

The members watching and Yuubi were all taken aback by his statement. "What? Why are you guys bringing this up again? Didn't I tell you to drop it?"Her eyes seemed to lose color; the barriers had reappeared.

"You did! Didn't you," Kaoru asked, restraining himself from shouting. He looked down at his feet, not wanting to believe it.

"I didn't," she said flatly.

"But you did," the twins shouted desperately. "Just tell us if you did… you wanted Brian Koller, and he rejected you."

"What?! Where did you get this?!" She felt so accused.

"Brian told me everything! If he's not right, then what happened?!" Hikaru grabbed her arm and shook her.

"I already told you what happened," she choked. There was a noticeable tiredness in her voice as she looked down at her feet and brushed Hikaru's arm off hers.

"And are you just nice to all of us because we're rich…" Kaoru asked frigidly. Hearing that question, the host members seemed to tense up a little, examining her as she stood as the focus, feeling extremely vulnerable.

"Wow…" she gasped, choking on her words. "After all this time, that's how you two see me?..." She looked around at the other host members who were either frowning at her in pity or staring at her in disappointment. "Well… then… Whatever, I can't decide how you guys see me…" She tightly bit her lips. She hated the frustration of being misunderstood. She hated having to explain herself; she never did it, which was why she was always a suspect growing up. After all these years, she grew tired of it all. After a pause, she forced a smile at all of them, "I don't feel very good, today. So I'm going to leave. See you guys later." She fled out of the room before anybody could stop her. _Why do I have to explain myself? _

_That idiot! How hard is it to just tell us we're wrong?! _Kaoru wondered angrily, kicking the chair behind him. Hikaru ran up and hugged him, not only to comfort his brother but also to comfort himself.

"Is it true?… she just used us" Tamaki hesitantly asked, balling his hands up into a fist.

"… I don't know," Kaoru sighed.

"To be honest… I don't think Yuu-chan would do such a thing," Honey finally stepped in. "Don't you guys think she was being genuine all this time?"

"I'm not sure, senpai…"


	18. Chapter 18

**Hi guys! So sorry! I had to re-upload right now since I forgot to add the first part of the chapter! Thank you itte'sasprite for pointing that out! **

**Finals are this week for me, so I might have some trouble keeping up the pace! I wanted to apologize in advance, but I will try my best to update daily! I wish everyone luck on their finals as well! Thank you guys so much! **

* * *

"Hikaru! Kaoru," their mother called from downstairs. _Mom's home early today? _They looked at each other and curiously walked down the stairs.

"COMING," they shouted in unison.

"You overgrown kids," she laughed. "I have a favor to ask you!"

"Mmm, yeah. What is it," Hikaru asked as he walked towards the table to grab a cookie.

"Kaoru! Stop that! I just baked those for my friend and business partner! You know her," she teasingly snapped, swatting his hand away from the box of cookies.

"Mom… I'm Kaoru. That's Hikaru," Kaoru weakly sighed from behind. He loved his mother more than he could imagine, but he despised the fact that his mother constantly got him and Hikaru mixed up. _We aren't that similar, are we? _"…Anyways what do you need?"

"Oh! Oh yeah! I need you boys to deliver these cookies and letter for me," she said wrapping up the cookie box. "It's for Mrs. Sato. You know, she only lives like two blocks away!" They quietly groaned. "Come on! She would love it if you guys went by and said hello! It's easy to find, just go down one block, and take a left, her house is in the corner. Now, off you boys go!" She handed them the box and the letter, and pushed them out the door, giggling at her boys.

At that point, they really had no choice. They started walking down the block toward Mrs. Sato's neighborhood. Their mother was right; they should visit Mrs. Sato. She hadn't seen them since they were in the middle school. She was a kind and wealthy lady but with wealth came responsibility and barely any free time, but they finally had a chance to see her again. They should've been more excited.

She opened the door, "WHAT?! HIKARU! KAORU! YOU BOYS GREW UP SO MUCH!" She quickly gave them long tight hugs to which they responded half heartedly. "HURRY! Come on in!... SIT DOWN SIT DOWN!" She excitedly led them to her spacious living room and seated them on her couch. "What do you guys want to drink? Water? Coke? Ginger ale? Root beer? Tea?"

"Umm… root beer please," they mumbled in unison, to which she laughed.

She returned with a tray of two root beers and a hot cup of earl grey tea and sat on the couch across from them. "Mmm… How have you boys been," she asked, taking a sip of her tea.

"Oh we've been okay…" Kaoru murmured. "Oh Mrs. Sato… here! From our mother."

"Awh! Please make sure you tell her I said thank you! She always bakes me things whenever she gets the time… She's a really gentle soul," she smiled cheerfully at the two boys. They nodded. "Oh? By the way… Are you guys okay?" She looked at the orange haired twins who barely drank their root beer and quietly stared at their feet.

"Umm yeah… we're fine," Hikaru claimed.

"But I know you're not… You guys are never this calm… it's strange," she replied, tilting her head slightly. They knew she was right; they sucked at hiding things, as always, and when they sulked together, it was even more obvious.

"… Mmm… what if we said we think our friend is lying to us about a situation…" Kaoru hesitantly said.

"Why would you ever think that?"

"...What if we met someone that told us a different story than what she said…"

"Hmm… Which one told it in more detail?"

"The other person…"

"Do you believe that your friend is honest?"

"…..Yeah…"

"Then why would you question her?"

"The other person said she was being nice to us because she wants to date us….. Because we're rich," Hikaru butt in, making no attempt to hide the hurt in his voice.

"Hahahaha! Is she poor?"

"Yes…" they mumbled, fearing her response.

"Well… Has she ever even tried to get with you guys? Asked you guys out?" Their eyes widened as they recalled their memories with her. What were they thinking? She never came running to them in tears. She hadn't clung onto them. She sat and slept in the back of the classes that they had together. She entered the host club knowing that they didn't find her attractive. She ate like a pig in front of them. She didn't try to flirt with them during their dance lessons. She was simply herself all the way, like Honey had said. "…Well? What's the answer?"

"…Nooo.…" they slowly said in unison, their lips slightly parting at the revelation.

...

* * *

"Yo! Yuubi," the Hitachiin twins called a little too cheerfully the next morning, approaching her desk in which she was napping.

"Mmm what…" the short haired girl groaned as she woke up and lazily lifted her head out of her arms. Her eyes were still squinted, and her vision was blurred. She groggily rubbed them to see the orange haired brothers, smiling at her. _What? No. _

"Let's go get lunch," Hikaru said, reaching for her arm.

She quickly pulled away. "No, I can't today….. I'm eating lunch in the art room. I have a lot of work to do for my midterm," she claimed coldly, shrugging at the two twins and avoiding eye contact. …_Looks like I'm eating lunch alone at the art room._

"Are you sure," Kaoru asked, feeling that was just an excuse. "Is something wrong?" She paused at the statement. _Is something wrong? Why of course nothing is wrong, _she thought sarcastically.

"Mmm. No? Nothing's wrong," she packed up her supplies, stood up from the chair, and slung her book bag over her shoulder. They looked at her in confusion. They approached her with kindness; they showed her that they forgave her. She should've been back to normal. "So I guess… I'll see you guys later at the host club." She half-heartedly lifted up a lazy hand before walking out the door.

At the art room, she ate her lunch: a smashed sandwich and a can of soda. "AAHAHA! MORI! Mori!" Her ears perked up as she heard Honey's voice in the distance. "HEHE I KNOW! I want to see it again too!" The voice was getting closer. Before she knew it, the two best friends were standing a few feet in front of her at the art room. _Why. This is awkward, _she thought, sitting before them.

"YUU-CHAN," Honey ran up to hug Yuubi, wrapping his arms around her neck. "I MISSED YOUU…"

"Oh… Why are you eating lunch alone," Mori asked, concern marked on his face.

"AHH! Honey senpai! Mori senpai," she laughed tensely. "I'm here to work on my midterm! What are you guys doing here?"

"Nee nee! Mori and I have been visiting the art room sometimes at lunch to see you're building it! We really love it," Honey excitedly exclaimed.

"Yeah… we hope you don't mind," Mori added, pulling up a stool beside her.

"Of course not! I can't believe you senpais would waste your time coming here," she laughed, taking a sip from her soda. Suddenly, a tray of katsu and rice was placed in front of her. "Huh? Mori senpai…"

"Eat it."

"Hahaha! No it's fine!... Why do you have two lunches?"

"Accidentally bought an extra one," he said casually. Honey looked towards him and warmly smiled; he was lying. He always bought two lunches for himself, but he knew if she knew that, she wouldn't take it. "I'm going to throw it away if you don't."

"Ahh! Mori senpai! Are you sure?!"

"YUU-CHANN! Just take it," Honey reassured, giggling and patting her on the back.

"Ahh! Honey senpai! Mori senpai! Thank you," she smiled.

* * *

_Blahh. I don't want to go to the host club today or tomorrow… or any other day… if only I didn't break that vase… if only I didn't break that vase… _If only she didn't actually care about repaying her debt, she wouldn't have to face the host club after school that day. But, nothing could stop her from paying it back down to the last penny; she always avoided mirroring her father's notorious unreliability. He had always been a man who threw around his words, a man who shamelessly grew a garden of debt in their non-existent backyard. She sighed heavily, and opened the doors of Music Room 3.

_Huh? She actually came today. Judging by her personality, I thought she definitely would've ditched for a week or two, _Kyoya thought as she walked through the doors of the host club.

"Hey guys," she said taking a seat at her table. She sighed, another day chatting up ladies. After a long five sessions, she was done. They were done. The air was still tense, so she decided it was best to leave.

"Where are you going," Tamaki coldly asked as she walked towards the door. "You obviously need to help close."

"Ah… I thought it would be best if I left," she answered, laughing nervously. She hated this atmosphere.

"What's wrong with you," Hikaru butt in.

"What?!"

"Yeah, stop being like this! We forgave you," Kaoru said.

At the statement, she couldn't help but laugh out of bafflement. "WHAT?!..." She was taken aback but responded with sass, "hahahhaha! Wow! did I even ask for forgiveness?!" Their eyes widened in shock. "Yeah, I mean sure… I get that you guys were worried, but stop being SO bipolar on me! It doesn't make any sense! It's annoying! What is up with you guys anyway? Your behavior towards me always changing, how do you expect me to react each time?" She was pissed off, but she still wished they would all just drop it.

"Wow, her temper is colder than we thought,"Kyoya chuckled on the side, whispering quite loudly to Haruhi's ear. The twins and the other members were speechless.

"…. We're sorry," Hikaru stuttered, bowing his head. _Hikaru…_ Kaoru thought looking at his brother; it was rare to see him apologizing for something he got so angry about.

"I guess… we just…. We just… got… a little… insec-… insecure…" Kaoru struggled to add.

"So it wasn't true," Tamaki concluded, happily clapping in the background.

"Yeah….. We were…. just…. worried," Hikaru hesitated, looking away from her.

"Come on. They're apologizing," Haruhi pointed out to Yuubi in a stern voice. She knew how rare it was for the stubborn twins to apologize because they were quite naïve to the world around them.

"Huh," she didn't expect such a quick apology. Well, they were unpredictable most of the time. She took a deep breath and crossed her arms, looking away from them. It was rare to see her angry, but even rarer to see her forgive others when she got so irritated, an area in which she had great stubbornness. "… Ahh," she looked up at the ceiling, blinking multiple times. Their intentions were pure, she knew, but she was annoyed at the emotional roller coaster they took her on. It was best to forgive them. "… Well…. I guess…. I'm sorry too…..… for making you guys worry and all," she choked on her words, still avoiding their faces. She felt her face burning.

"No…. We're sorry," the twins stuttered looking to the sides of the room. "We jumped to conclusions."

The three all refused to look at each other, blowing up their cheeks, embarrassed that they had just apologized for their actions they had, once before, deemed reasonable. There was a palpable and long silence in the room as the members stared at the three, frozen. She suddenly realized the situation; she felt a tingle run up her back and her throat tickling her and urging her to laugh at the awkwardness and stupidity of it all. She wanted to – no, she did. She broke out into a fit of laughter. "Hahahahaha guys….. AAAHAHAH!... we're all …. so… AHAHAHAH!... stubborn," she laughed. _What… the… heck… _the other members now stared at her with blank faces, with a sweat drop running down the back of their heads in unison. _Oh dear, is she just as crazy, _Haruhi wondered, staring at the girl laughing her head off.


	19. Chapter 19

_What a long and strange day yesterday was, _she thought as she slowly opened up her eyes. She felt a sharp pain in her back, and groggily sat up on her bedroom floor. _Hahaha argh, I would fall off my bed again. _Yuubi quickly jumped up and looked out the window. The trees were bare and dark, and the clouds were out. She smiled; she loved this weather. Hurriedly, she threw on a shirt, oversized knit tweed sweater, some skinny trouser pants, and a large navy blue winter jacket. She walked to the bathroom to brush her teeth and wash her face, then, threw her bag over her shoulder and made it out the door.

...

* * *

"The mid-term painting that you guys have been working on are due on Wednesday," the teacher announced as she walked into the door of her art classroom and took a seat at her stool and easel. "Okay? No excuses. No extensions. No absences." She smiled, facing her painting. She had spent a tremendous amount of time on it, painting every little detail until it looked almost real. Usually, she didn't have the patience or the desire to paint realistic paintings, but this year's autumn inspired her to capture it unaltered.

"Wow! That's a really amazing painting Yuubi-san," a student from her art class awed from behind her.

"Ah! Toh-san! Thank you so much," she turned around to face him with a smile. He was handsome looking boy from a wealthy family whose members were several of the most respected artists in Japan. He had a chocolate brown hair, and was lean, tall, and somewhat, reserved. Every time she saw him in class, he would be sitting on his stool with a paintbrush in one hand, a pallet in the other, biting onto a different sized paintbrush as his gaze never separating from his piece until the bell excused him for the day.

"Yeah no problem," he said, leaning in to see it with his light grey eyes carefully examining the details of the piece. "Really nice!" He finally stood up and gave her a kind smile and thumbs up to which she slightly blushed. She had a lot of respect for him, especially because she saw him as one the most talented artists at the school.

* * *

"COMMONER," Tamaki shouted as she entered the doors of the host club. "WE, THE HOST CLUB, HAVE A FAVOR TO ASK YOU. CAN YOU DO IT?!" She walked towards the leader who, was lounging on the couch with his long legs crossed with the members beside him, nodding their heads to his statement.

_I hope it's not something crazy… _"Ah… depends," she nervously laughed, in fear of accepting the favor.

"WE WANT TO GO TO YUU-CHAN'S HOUSE," Honey ran over to over and stretched his arms out beyond his frame, hugging her excitedly.

"My house….?" _As in my little studio apartment?_

"Mhmhmhmhm," the members nodded in unison, besides Haruhi who gave her a sympathetic smile and shrugged.

"LOL… but it's NOT A HOUSE," she tried to clarify, thinking that they were expecting a middle-class regular size house.

"We know," Kyoya chuckled. "We got your address over here," he pointed a finger at his clipboard, a statement to which her back slumped in disbelief. "We just wanted to get permission before we surprised visited you. Plus, it would be a waste of time to visit when no one was home."

"Haha… wow… my address," she laughed. "…What is privacy…"

"Well we're asking you now, so that's your right to privacy," Kyoya responded.

"Ah… touché," she shrugged.

"SO CAN WE OR WHAT?!" the twins and Tamaki shouted impatiently.

"Mmm… I guess so… There's really not much to do in there though. It'll be boring..…" she said, thinking out loud.

"WE DON'T CARE WE JUST WANT TO SEE IT!"

"…Uhh whatever you guys want," she shrugged laughing. _What are we going to do in there anyways?!_

"YAYYYYY! YUU-CHAN'S HOUSE! YUU-CHAN'S HOUSE," Honey sang, dancing around the other members with Usa-chan.

* * *

They said Saturday, 2pm sharp, which was still too early of a time for her to wake up on a weekend, so she spent her Thursday, tidying up her place in case she forgot to. Saturday morning came, and she lazily walked outside her apartment in her pajamas – hair unkempt – and took a smoke break, leaning on the railings and feeling the air against her skin. The fact that they were visiting had completely slipped her mind.

"Good afternoon! Whoa! It's quite chilly out this winter! I see you're having your i-just-woke-up smoke break to start your day," Her neighbor, Mrs. Hiro playfully teased. She laughed and nodded in response. A long black limousine pulled up by the parking lot, causing both of them to raise their eyebrows and stare at it.

"What's a limousine doing in this neighborhood," Yuubi asked, squinting at the car in bafflement.

"I know! They're probably going to take a U-turn or something," Mrs. Hiro exclaimed, laughing. It parked. The two neighbors kept their gaze at it, curious to see what was going on.

"YUUUUUUU-CHANNNNNN," Honey hopped out of the limousine and looked up at Yuubi on the second floor of the complex, waving cheerily.

"AH!? HONEY SENPAI," her eyes widened as she realized they were visiting today. _AH DANG IT!_


	20. Chapter 20

**Thank you for all the support! It really keeps me reminded to update this week. My mind is like all over the place :P ! Thank you guys so much! Enjoy!**

* * *

...

* * *

"Yo," Mori waved as he exited the car.

The other members exited the limousine as well, shouting her name and waving excitedly.

"You know them?" Mrs. Hiro asked, tilting her head at Yuubi.

"Ahahaha! Yeah! School friends…." she laughed, scratching the back of her head. The members had run up the stairs and were now behind her.

"YUUBI'S HOUSE! YUUBI'S HOUSE! LET'S GO INSIDE YUUBI'S HOUSE," they chanted.

"One girl, seven rich guys…" Mrs. Hiro said out loud to herself as she faced the group. She turned to face Yuubi. "Yuubi-san… I didn't know you liked it like _that_," she exclaimed, looking at Yuubi in absolute horror.

"Huh… What do you –" she paused for a second to think. "NO NO NO! MRS. HIRO! IT'S NOT LIKE THAT! YOU KNOW I'M NOT LIKE THAT. RIGHT RIGHT?!"

"Yeah yeah…" Mrs. Hiro started walking back to her door. "I'll let you guys have your privacy now."

"NOOOO! ! I SWEAR! IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK," she called out to her old neighbor. _Ah, damn. There better not be any gossip around this complex, _she laughed to herself.

"Come on. Let's go inside," Hikaru tapped his foot in impatience.

"By the way, why do you look so gross," Kaoru added, laughing.

"… I –"

"You forgot again, didn't you?" Kyoya interrupted, chuckling at the sight of her: cigarette in hand, hair all-over the place, baggy pajamas pants, and an oversized grey hoodie.

She bowed her head, admitting he was right. "…Actually yeah…"

"Typical."

She lit out her cig and led them inside. "There it is… it isn't much…"

"This. Is. A. Joke," the twins claimed in unison.

"Our garage is bigger than this," Kaoru said, looking around at the room.

"Seriously, what is this," Hikaru echoed.

Yuubi laughed and shrugged in response. "That's my home!"

"Guys," Haruhi scolded. "Do you know what common courtesy is? Stop it!"

"Where's your living room…" the members asked sternly. She pointed to the floor in front of them. "Then where's your bedroom…" She pointed to the same floor. "Dining room?" She pointed to the same place again. They were absolutely speechless, expect for Haruhi who smiled in response.

"Your place is quite nice," Haruhi genuinely commented.

"Haha thanks, Haruhi!" She winked at her friend, knowing she would understand. "What," she laughed, looking at the other members. "Look, there's a kitchen and a bathroom," she said, running into the kitchen. "Three rooms!"

". . ."

* * *

"I BROUGHT SOME CAAAYAKE," Honey exclaimed once they were seated on the floor next to a short foldable table. He held up a big plastic bag filled with different flavored sweets.

"Ah! That's so kind! Thank you Honey senpai," she said as he placed the cakes out on the table. They looked so extravagant in comparison to her place.

"Nee! Nee," Honey lightly elbowed her to get her attention. "Mori told me he thought you might like the salted caramel and coffee flavored one, so I got this one especially for you!"

"AH Thank you Honey senpai! And, Mori senpai! How did you know?!" Her eyes were fixed onto the cake ready to devour the whole thing. _MY FAVORITE._

"Uh… I guessed." _I didn't think I would be so spot on, _Mori thought and slightly laughed, pulling up a strawberry cream cake for himself. _He laughed?! _The other members stared at their tall friend in shock.

"Try this Haruhi," Kaoru and Hikaru gently placed one of the pastries in her mouth and took a bite from it also, inches away from her face, stroking her neck. They did this very often, with anything they could get their hands on: cookies, crackers, wafers, pocky sticks.

"Hmm… yum," she said, carefully chewing on the pastry. "What is it?"

Tamaki was now sobbing in the background. "What's wrong boss," the twins shrugged, used to his reaction.

"Yuubi come here!" Hikaru picked up a pastry and put it in her mouth.

"What the – " She was stopped by the two boys who were now in her face, trying to take a bite of the pastry. They gently ran their hands up her neck. _Oh no. _She felt an irresistible tingle through her body. Right, they didn't know how ticklish she was. She screamed, "AHAHAH, STOP!" Her head impulsively jerked forward and slammed her forehead into the faces of the two twins, sending them flying backward. She was laughing wildly.

"OWW! WHAT WAS THAT FOR," they shouted, recovering from the fall.

The other members were now laughing at the twins as well. _That sure didn't work._

* * *

"AHH I'M HUNGRY," Tamaki wailed after they were finished with cake. She was in the kitchen getting them some tea. He leaned back to lay down, but he hit his head on a small drawer behind him. "OUCH," he looked up at a drawer. "Oops! Sorry! I think I knocked over your picture frame," he said, making the picture stand right up again. "Huh? Oh yeah Yuubi. How come your parents aren't home?"

"UHH…" the question was so random and so sudden. She placed the tray of drinks on the table and found her composure. "They're on vacation," she said. _forever… It's funny how I always lie about these kind of things… _she thought to herself, looking down at her table.

"Your parents seem like wonderful people," Tamaki concluded.

"Well… they're just people! Ahahah, man Tamaki, you have a way with words," she responded with a nervous laugh. "Anyways, are you guys starving or what?!"

"Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Let's eat something," the twins agreed in unison. "Cook for us!"

"HAHAAHAAHAH! I'm a terrible cook…" she claimed, recalling her nasty looking dishes. She probably got it from her dad… who could fix himself and Yuubi nothing but undercooked rice and seaweed whenever he got into a fight with mom – those days when her mom would stay out until after midnight to avoid confrontation. He tired her, and Yuubi knew it far too well.

"Huh? Then how does a commoner like you survive?" Tamaki asked, his eyes wide, expecting a melodramatic response about the struggles of poverty.

"I just eat it even though it's horrible," she laughed. "I got used to it I guess."

They nearly fainted of bafflement at her response. _What an idiot. _

"I guess, it's almost dinner time anyway. Let's just go out! There's a yummy hot pot restaurant down the street! My friend works there," she exclaimed excited. "Plus, it's all you can eat!"

"Hot pot?! My parents told me we weren't allowed to have hot pot since it was oily and super bad for you," the twins shrugged, facing each other with poker faces.

"Same with my parents," Kyoya chuckled.

"NEE NEE I WANNA TRY," Honey reassured, tugging on her leg.

"Yeah," Mori added.

"Yeah! I'm fine with hot pot," Haruhi smiled.

"Cool," Yuubi nodded with a grin. "Well you guys keep talking and finish your drinks… I'm going to go to the bathroom and change."

"Okay!"

_Eh, I guess I can skip out on the totally masculine look today, _she shrugged as she picked out her clothes: her favorite black long wool coat, loose white tee, tan skinny jeans, and black combat boots. She hurriedly ran into the bathroom, changed, washed her faced, fixed her hair, and came outside.

"Aahah yo! Lookin' tough," Kaoru teased.

"Yeah! You look KIND OF like a girl today," Hikaru chimed in.

"YEAH LETS GO CREW! WE'RE GOING TO TRY SOME COMMONER'S FOOD," Tamaki ran out the door. "Wait, where is it? I meant, SHOW US THE WAY."


	21. Chapter 21

"So what is this?" Hikaru finally got up the nerve to ask, pointing at the broth in confusion. They sat around several pots of boiling soup with herbs in it.

"We order anything we want on the menu and we cook it in the sou-"

"YUUBII-CHAN!"

"Chan?!" the twins laughed in unison.

"Ah?! Akihiro-kun," she exclaimed as she turned around to see where the voice was coming from.

"Where have you been?! I missed you," the boy said, playfully hugging her around her neck and ruffling her hair. He had big hazel eyes and a wide smile, short black hair and fair skin. He neither lean nor buff, somewhere in between and was only a few inches shorter than Mori.

"AHH! I MISSED YOU TOO," she laughed pinching his right cheek.

"Have you seen Rena recently?"

"Haha yeah I have actually! She's in Japan now! What have you been up to?!"

"I don't know… Life is just too boring without you," he joked. "I guess just working… You never even visit me, you meanie!"

"Hahahaha! Hot pot is only a special treat… you know?" The two friends suddenly seemed to disappear into their own world with various "remember when"s and "did you know"s.

"That must be Yuubi's really close friend," Haruhi smiled. "They really seem to enjoy each other's company."

"Hmph. I don't see anything special about that guy," Hikaru mumbled rolling his eyes, feeling his face burn red from annoyance.

"Hey, don't you work here," He suddenly asked, glaring directly at Akihiro. Kaoru looked at his brother from the corner of his eye.

"Yes?" Akihiro's smiled faded into a curious expression.

"Well I need to order," Hikaru slapped the menu on the table.

"Hahaha! Whoa! Okay sir," Akihiro ran up to him. Yuubi laughed out loud.

"Hika-chan… do you know how to order," Honey asked excitedly.

"Hikaru…" Kaoru said quietly, putting his hand on his brother's shoulder.

"Ok… so tell me what you want," Akihiro leaned in to look at Hikaru's menu.

Everyone now stared at Hikaru, wondering what he was going to order. "Uhmmm," he blushed. "Yuubi! What do you want?"

"… HAHHAAHA. What," she asked laughing. "What do you want? You asked Akihiro-kun to take your order," she teased.

"Akihiro…. Kun," he asked slowly with irritation in his voice.

"Yeah?! What's wrong with you," she laughed at his ridiculousness.

"Who is this guy?!... You're just chatting with him! It was supposed to be our day! With all of our friends!"

"HAHAAHAHAH WHAT! I KNOW HIKARU! IT IS," she was laughing even harder now, grabbing Akihiro's arm.

"Yeah! Hahaha! WHOA… I just work here, and I haven't seen her in while, that's all," Akihiro nervously laughed. "I'm not anyone important… I'll leave after taking your order. Sorry about that!"

"No no! Don't be silly," Tamaki kindly smiled, shaking his head. "We liked seeing Yuubi so happy."

"Not anyone important?! Hahahaha! What are you talking about Akihiro-kun?! No I'm sorry! I didn't introduce you properly! You guys this is my childhood friend, Akihiro," she motioned her hands as if she was presenting him. "And these are my friends from Ouran!"

"Nice to meet you," Tamaki and Haruhi said in unison, causing them to blush a little.

"Nice to meet you Aki-chan," Honey flashed him an adorable smile. Mori nodded next to him.

"Nice to meet you everyone," Akihiro lit up and bowed at the members. "Oh yeah! Let me get the food!"

* * *

"WOW IT LOOKS AMAZING," Yuubi shouted when Akihiro brought the food out. The other members were looking at the boiling pot of food thrown into it with unease. "TRY IT!"

Haruhi lifted up her chopsticks and took a piece of beef. "Mmm! Not bad! Try it you guys!"

They hesitantly grabbed their eating utensils and stared the pot of food in horror. _What is that?!_

"Akihiro-kun! Remember you used to always cook this at your place on rainy days," Yuubi asked, facing her childhood friend.

"Hahah! I know! It became a thing since you loved it so much. I wanted to become really good at it," Akihiro laughed nervously, happy that she remembered.

"You were great since the start!"

"Wow! You can cook Akihiro-san," Tamaki smiled excitedly at his new acquaintance, finally deciding to try the dish. "DELICIOUS!"

"Yeah! That's really amazing," Haruhi added in awe. Mori and Kyoya nodded in content.

"Hahah thank you everyone!"

"Hmph," Hikaru sneered, crossing his arms on his seat.

"Hikaru? Aren't you going to eat," Kaoru asked worriedly.

"It tastes weird," he said loudly. "It's commoner food anyways." The table went silent; Kaoru looked at his brother in sympathy, while Akihiro gasped, slightly offended and surprised. _Why doesn't he like me?_

"Yeah yeah whatever! Eat it or leave it," Yuubi laughed, waving her hand at him. He glared at her in hurt. He continued to eat in silence with Kaoru kindly attending to him. The atmosphere lit up again as they ate they finished the hot pot and talked about their day, exchanging jokes.

"Ahh SO FULL," Honey exclaimed, rubbing his tummy. "Thanks for taking us here, Yuu-chan!" They got up to leave.

" Yuubi! Visit more often! Or let's meet up when I don't have work," Akihiro blushed, grabbing her wrist as she walked out. "I don't know when the last time I'll see you again would be… you always disappear." Hikaru rolled his eyes, almost gagging from his comment. Kaoru noticed his brother's reaction through the corner of his eye.

She laughed, "Mhm! I promise! It'll be soon! See you!"

* * *

"Hikaru… you shouldn't have acted that way… remember the time Haruhi slapped you? I was scared it was going to happen again…"

"What? You were disgusted too, I know," Hikaru claimed sitting up from bed. His twin loved to talk before bed; he talked until he fell asleep. Hikaru guessed it was because it made him feel less alone.

"Well… I think I behaved better than you," Kaoru laughed, leaning in to hug his older brother from behind. "When we fought with Yuubi… It was funny. I realized we sometimes don't exactly understand how to behave around others since we grew up isolated for so long…" There was a pause as he smiled and stared up at the ceiling. "Joining the host club definitely helped though."

"Huh?... We behave just like everyone else Kaoru…"

"I don't know… I feel like we don't," he frowned and leaned back on the bed, pulling the blankets over his face. "Goodnight."


	22. Chapter 22

"YUUBI! GOOD JOB MY LITTLE ROOKIE!" Tamaki was in her face right when she entered through the doors. "I GOT THE NUMBER OF YOUR REQUESTS!"

"Wha – how many," Yuubi asked, her jaw widening in curiosity.

"One thousand six hundred," Haruhi laughed, patting her on the back and handing her the paper with the number on it. "You're quite popular with the ladies Yuubi-san!"

"Nah! It's probably 'cause I let them spend all day talking about themselves," she laughed, half joking, half serious.

"Well YOU'RE AN OFFICIAL HOST," Tamaki proudly pointed directly at her nose. "WELCOME."

"Haha! Thanks Tamaki senpai!" _Time to go harass my blackmailer, _she smirked to herself as she walked towards Kyoya who was sitting alone at his table.

"Kyoya senpai! Guess what," Yuubi shouted into Kyoya's ear.

"What."

"I finally got 1,600 requests," she danced around Music Room 3, waving the paper with the number on it.

"Good job," he said nonchalantly, raising up his glasses. His eyes fixed on his clipboard.

"Aren't you going to congratulate me?!"

"Why would I do that? You owe us."

She collapsed at the directness of his response. "Ouch!"

"Good job anyway," he patted her on the head and began to walk away. He stopped mid-way and turned back around to her. "Question."

"Yes?"

"You would make more money just as a host member than as an artist… So why did you chose such a low-paying major? Haruhi wants to be a lawyer. That's reasonable. They make a lot of money… So why art?"

She laughed. "Kyoya senpai! Question: When will you ever take your nose out of that clipboard?"

"Hmm?" His eyebrows rose at the metaphorical nature of the question.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is… you always look at the statistics, numbers, and facts on that clipboard to fix your problems... Isn't there more to life than just a solid answer? There are things that can't be calculated. That's why I'm doing art. There's no right or wrong answer. And I'm happiest doing it. Doesn't matter how much I'll earn. I mean it matters, but it's secondary. I just live doing what I love and what I'm happiest doing, is that a good answer?"

"But… don't you want to be successful?"

"Is success only measured in dollars?" She laughed as she watched his facial expression changed when he heard that question. For once, he looked uncertain. "Man… For somebody as smart as you, you're a little pretentious…" She glanced at the clock. "Oh dang it, time to go home already I guess… I'll see you tomorrow Kyoya senpai!" With that, she ran out the door, waving good bye to everyone else at the club.

"Success….… measured by your own….. happiness," Kyoya chuckled to himself.

…..

"How is the food Kyoya-sama," his family maid Coco asked.

"Ah… It's good. Don't worry," he reassured, slowly picking up his fork.

"You're always so weak! I've never seen a boy, so tired when he does nothing all day," Mr. Ootori shouted. Those were the first words exchanged between family members at the dinner table that night. Usually, everyone ate in silence. Kyoya sighed, putting his fork down on the table. He couldn't seem to swallow his steak, no matter how carefully he chewed. It eventually made him feel as if his throat was turning inside out. "How are you going to take head of the cooperation if you do nothing!? I know you want it, but it seems your older brothers are more qualified!"

"Father…" he sighed, forcefully swallowing the chewed up piece of meat. "I have a question…" He hoped that his father's answer would be different than what he expected. "…Did you create the cooperation because it made you happy?"

His dad nearly choked on his food at the question, laughing in shock. He angrily replied, "happy? Don't worry yourself with such petty things! Happiness!? Focus on your studies and plan on preparing yourself to be qualified to inherit the business! Ok? I can't believe you're focus is on that!" _Dummy, what kind of answer were you expecting from father? _Kyoya bowed his head and looked at his hands that looked frailer than ever. _Could these hands ever create something that would please you? _"Do you understand?!"

Kyoya choked as he tried to answer, head spinning. He felt the blood in his body rushing upwards. His dad always did this, did nothing but stress him out constantly, resulting in his highly strung personality. Eventually, he came to a point that any little thing that his father had said broke him down to pieces. "I'm done…" He rose from his seat. "I'm going to my room…. Thanks for the meal."

As soon as he got into the room, he closed the door and set his glasses on the table. He watched the white walls of his room cave in on him. _Why do I feel this way? _He rubbed his dewy eyes that had suddenly filled up with water. He could only cry in his room; he promised himself that he would never show this side to anyone else.

He looked up at the wall above his bed, face to face with the painting of the colorful flower bleeding out of a painting of lavender flowers. _Free myself from the borders that confine me? Was that what you were trying to tell me? _He stared curiously at the piece and rubbed his eyes dry, regaining his poise. His lips formed into a curious smile. _Quite an imagination this girl has… _He crawled into bed and closed his eyes, his heart still heavy from the stress that his father had put on him.

…

"Yuubi… Come here dog," he called out to her from his table, his eyes fixed on his laptop.

"DOG?! WOW!" she jokingly blew up her cheeks and crossed her arms. "Not going over there!"

"Don't be so sensitive. You're just like the twins," he mocked.

She felt the hairs on her body stand up. "WHAT?! I AM NOT! I'm coming!" _I knew it would work, _he laughed.

"Close your eyes."

"What the – why!"

"Just do it!" She hesitantly closed her eyes. "Okay open." Her eyes readjusted to the lights that were in the room and widened at the sight they were revealed to. "What's that for?!"

Kyoya rolled his eyes. "For you… Do you really have to make me say it…"

"What?! Why?!"

"Just take it…"

"Why for me though?"

"For getting 1,600 requests," he shrugged; he didn't really know why he was giving her a gift either, but did everything need a reason?

"Ahh… I see what's going on…"

"What."  
"You're falling for me! Hahahaha," she jokingly teased.

He broke out into a fit of laughter. "AhAhHAHAh… funny… I only would have interest an heir of a rich coopera – " He stopped himself and chuckled before she could point out his pretention again.

She looked at him suspicion, "so you're going to make me pay for it…"

"Yeah I am… By reaching your success with it…" He coolly put the set of various paint brushes into her hands.

Her eyes widened. "Thank you Kyoya senpai! Thank you! Thank you! I'll take super good care of them!"

He laughed, feeling joyous at the act of giving. _That's right. Tamaki once taught me, there is more to life than just selfish gain… I forget that at times. _


End file.
